Thursday, June 10, 2010

The Periodic Table of Women in SF: A Meme

A meme has been rattling around for the past week or so -- incited by Sandra McDonald's neat Periodic Table of Women in Science Fiction (which is, by the way, an actual table, which makes it doubly awesome) -- but I've been too busy for memeage until this evening.

The table became a meme through the usual Internet Alchemy, and its rules are thus:
I’ve bolded the ones I own books of, italicised, the women I’ve read something of (short stories count) and starred those I never heard of.
I often add notes to memes like this, so I may do so now. And, since I'm not entirely sure what books I own, I'm being inclusive -- if I'm pretty sure I bought a book by a writer, I'll bold her name. (For that matter, if I bought a book of hers as an editor, I'll bold it, too.)
  • Andre Norton
  • C. L. Moore
  • Evangeline Walton
  • Leigh Brackett
  • Judith Merril
  • Joanna Russ -- just read short fiction, as far as I can remember
  • Margaret St. Clair
  • Katherine MacLean -- I probably read something short, but I can't remember anything specific.
  • Carol Emshwiller
  • Marion Zimmer Bradley
  • Zenna Henderson
  • Madeline L’Engle
  • Angela Carter
  • Ursula LeGuin
  • Anne McCaffrey
  • Diana Wynne Jones
  • Kit Reed
  • James Tiptree, Jr.
  • Rachel Pollack -- her first novel, Unquenchable Fire, is one of the best things ever written by anyone ever
  • Jane Yolen -- this is slightly a cheat, since the book I think I own is a picture book up in one of my sons' rooms
  • Marta Randall
  • Eleanor Arnason
  • Ellen Asher -- she has never written fiction, or had her name credited on a book, that I know of, but I've read more of her nonfiction (in the form of memos, e-mails, and reader's reports) than everyone else doing this meme put together
  • Patricia A. McKillip -- I need to read more of her books. I keep saying this.
  • Suzy McKee Charnas
  • Lisa Tuttle
  • Nina Kiriki Hoffman -- only short fiction
  • Tanith Lee
  • Pamela Sargeant
  • Jayge Carr
  • Vonda McIntyre
  • Octavia E. Butler
  • Kate Wilhelm
  • Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
  • Sheila Finch
  • Mary Gentle
  • Jessica Amanda Salmonson
  • C. J. Cherryh
  • Joan D. Vinge
  • Teresa Nielsen Hayden -- she's not a fiction writer, but I do own Making Book
  • Ellen Kushner
  • Ellen Datlow
  • Nancy Kress
  • Pat Murphy
  • Lisa Goldstein
  • Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
  • Mary Turzillo
  • Connie Willis
  • Barbara Hambly
  • Nancy Holder
  • Sheri S. Tepper
  • Melissa Scott
  • Margaret Atwood
  • Lois McMaster Bujold
  • Jeanne Cavelos
  • Karen Joy Fowler
  • Leigh Kennedy
  • Judith Moffett
  • Rebecca Ore
  • Emma Bull
  • Pat Cadigan
  • Kathryn Cramer -- again, she's purely an anthologist as far as I know, but I suppose if you edit enough bug-crushingly large anthologies (and Cramer has), it counts like a novel
  • Laura Mixon
  • Eileen Gunn
  • Elizabeth Hand
  • Kij Johnson
  • Delia Sherman
  • Elizabeth Moon
  • Michaela Roessner
  • Terri Windling
  • Sharon Lee
  • Sherwood Smith
  • Katherine Kurtz
  • Margo Lanagan
  • Laura Resnick
  • Kristine Kathryn Rusch
  • Sheila Williams -- might have written some fiction at some point, but I know her as an editor
  • Farah Mendelsohn -- I want to read at least two of her (non-fiction) books, but I don't own them.
  • Gwyneth Jones -- Funny story: one of the senior managers at my company is Gwenyth Jones. Well, it's funny to me....
  • Ardath Mayhar
  • Esther Friesner
  • Debra Doyle
  • Nicola Griffith
  • Amy Thomson
  • Martha Wells -- I have an entire trilogy I need to read, one of these days
  • Catherine Asaro
  • Kate Elliott
  • Kathleen Ann Goonan
  • Shawna McCarthy
  • Caitlin Kiernan
  • Maureen McHugh
  • Cheryl Morgan
  • Nisi Shawl -- she used to review books for me, back at the SFBC, but I'm not sure if I've read any of her fiction. I am clearly an ingrate.
  • Mary Doria Russell
  • Kage Baker
  • Kelly Link
  • Nancy Springer
  • J. K. Rowling
  • Nalo Hopkinson
  • Ellen Klages
  • Tanarive Due
  • M. Rickert -- I really need to read her collection.
  • Theodora Goss
  • Mary Anne Mohanraj
  • S. L. Viehl
  • Jo Walton
  • Kristine Smith
  • Deborah Layne
  • Cherie Priest
  • Wen Spencer
  • K. J. Bishop
  • Catherynne M. Valente
  • Elizabeth Bear
  • Ekaterina Sedia
  • Naomi Novik
  • Mary Robinette Kowal
  • Ann VanderMeer
A few of those names are mildly obscure -- women who write mostly short fiction, or who were active in the field a long time ago, but I'd hope at least their names would be familiar to anyone following the field.

Hey! For once, it's a meme that makes me feel good about what I've read. That's novel.

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