What is science-fictional in a story about equality of the sexes...?

Over at The Future Fire blog, where we are writing about a subgenre a day this month, Deirdre Murphy talks about Feminist Science Fiction. She begins:

I remember growing up in the ‘60s and ‘70s, looking out at the vital civil rights movement and imagining that I would one day live in a world where women were seen as equal partners in all things, a world where we didn’t suffer from a gender gap in terms of respect, power, airplay, or paychecks. I envisioned a world where gender wouldn’t matter, unless someone wanted to create a new baby. In contrast, I looked at stuff like Dick Tracey’s cool wrist communicator more as science-fantasy.

You see where this is going, right? Read the whole post here.

FeministSF Twitter chat in honour of Joanna Russ

Next Sunday at 14:00 Eastern US time, a group of interested writers, editors, readers and feminists will be participating in an informal Twitter chat in memory of Joanna Russ, the Feminist Science Fiction writer who died after suffering a series of strokes last week. (One of the best reminiscences of Russ's life is at the Body Impolitic blog; more links are collected at this SH post.)

If you're interested in taking part, either as a fan of Russ's novels The Female Man, Picnic on Paradise, etc., or her nonfiction writing such as How to Suppress Women's Writing; as a reader or producer of science fiction with an interest in women's or queer issues; or as a feminist who cares about imaginative and literary work in this field, details follow.

The conversation will take place on Twitter, the microblogging social network site, on Sunday May 8th at 14:00 (2pm) EDT (=17:00 BST, 11:00 PDT, etc.), and will last about an hour. All are welcome. To follow the conversation, search for the hashtag #FeministSF, and/or contact the chat coordinators @thefuturefire and @traciewelser. To post to the chat, simply use this same hashtag in a tweet, and it will appear to all other chatters who follow that search.

(And if you ever wondered how people could possibly have a meaningful conversation in 140-character snippets? Just watch.)

Female author wins award, but Jonathan Franzen doesn't...

Thanks to Jo Swingler for her link on Facebook to this MobyLives article:

Earlier this month Brooklyn-based novelist Jennifer Egan was awarded the National Book Critics Award for her most recent novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad. However, ... instead of celebrating Egan’s achievement, the LA Times decided to interpret the story from a somewhat different angle. They instead chose to highlight the fact that Jonathan Franzen did not win the award. Not only did the story focus on his loss, but the main photo used was of Franzen himself, rather than Egan, the winner. In the UK, we roll out the word ‘gobsmacking’ for instances like these.

Feminist Science Fiction

This month's issue of the speculative fiction magazine The Future Fire (which I co-edit) is a Feminist Science Fiction themed edition, featuring five stories that focus on sex and gender, women's issues, strong female protagonists and other socially aware literary themes. TFF is a free online magazine that focuses on social, political and speculative fiction, and also runs a Reviews Blog.

The Feminist Science Fiction themed issue was advertised in early 2009 and called for stories that focus on "gender, sexual identity and sexuality; stories that take the "radical idea" [that women are human beings] and do something about it; stories that can engage, empower, educate, and inspire men and women alike." As always, only the most excellent stories, that were both useful and beautiful, would be published. In the end there were so many great stories submitted that the "feminist science fiction" issue was split into two parts: in January this year we published the first issue focused on sex and gender, women's issues and strong female protagonists. In March we shall publish the follow-up, with several stories focused on sexuality and gender identity, GLBT issues; the "Queer Science Fiction" themed issue, if you will.

All of the stories in this issue are wonderful, I can say without hesitation. They are also beautifully illustrated. If you read them, we'd love your feedback and comments--all of the authors and artists deserve your support.

Related links:

• Feminist SF -- on feminist science fiction and fantasy
• The Outer Alliance -- support and advocacy for queer speculative fiction
• @thefuturefire on Twitter