So here’s the thing guys… I need your help. I began my Research Masters on Future Feminism today, and I’m compiling a list of contemporary female SF authors (not fantasy, not YA, and not straight SF romance) who have been published in novel length work since 2000.
I’d love to hear who your favourite female SF (post 2000) author is so I can add them to my reading list. Please leave the names in the comments section and I’ll add them to my main list. I’ve made a solid start, but there are many more! I’ve alphabetised by surname.
Female SF novelists published post 2000:
Anne Aguirre
Nina Allan
Jo Anderton
Catherine Asaro
Rachel Bach
Kage Baker
Cherith Baldry
Elizabeth Bear
Jacey Bedford
Lauren Beukes
Jennifer Marie Brissett
Octavia Butler
Monica Byrne
Pat Cadigan
C J. Cherryh
Julie E. Czerneda
Aliette de Bodard
Sara Creasy
L Timmel Duchamp
Carol Emshwiller
Kelley Eskridge
Jaine Fenn
JM Frey
Mary Gentle
Carolyn Ives Gilman
Mira Grant
Kathleen Anne Goonan
Nicola Griffith
Andrea Hairston
Nalo Hopkinson
M. C. A. Hogarth
Sarah Hoyt
Tanya Huff
Kameron Hurley
Patty Jansen
Jean Johnson
Gwyneth Jones
Emmi Itaranta
Jacqueline Koyanagi
Mary Robinette Kowal
Nancy Kress
Kim Lakin-Smith
Larissa Lai
Sharon Lee
Anne Leckie
Karen Lord
Karin Lowachee
Helen Lowe
Maxine MacArthur
Maurenn F. McHugh
Lois McMaster Bujold
Julian May
Laura Mixon
Elizabeth Moon
Lyda Morehouse
Chris Moriarty
Meg Mundell
Pat Murphy
Linda Nagata
Emma Newman
Audrey Niffennegger
Lisanne Norman
Claire North
Nnedi Okorafor
Kate Orman
Helen Patrice
Cherie Priest
Kit Reed
Laura E. Reeve
Rhonda Roberts
Justina Robson
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Stephanie Saulter
Melissa Scott
Johanna Sinisalo
Joan Slonczewski
Kristine Smith
Steph Swainston
EJ Swift
Tricia Sullivan
Sheri S. Tepper
Steph Swainston
Karen Traviss
S. L. Viehl
Jo Walton
Martha Wells
Kim Westwood
Liz Williams
Connie Willis
Janine Ellen Young
Self-Published
Cynthia Echterling
Andrea K Host
G. S. Jennsen
Mainstream Authors who have written SF
Kate Atkinson (Life After Life, 2013)
Margaret Atwood
Ioanna Bourazopoulou (What Lot’s Wife Saw, 2013 English trans)
Jennifer Egan (A Visit From the Goon Squad, 2010)
Lauren Groff (Arcadia, 2012)
Xiaolu Guo (UFO in Her Eyes, 2009)
Sarah Hall – The Carhullan Army
Liz Jensen (various, including The Rapture, 2009)
Joanna Kavenna (The Birth of Love, 2010)
Lydia Millet (Oh Pure and Radiant Heart, 2006)*
Jan Morris (Hav, 2007)*
Sarah Moss (Cold Earth)
Ruth Ozeki (A Tale for the Time Being, 2013)
Jane Rogers (The Testament of Jessie Lamb, 2011)
Scarlett Thomas (various, including The End of Mr Y)
Kit Whtifield (In Great Waters, 2008)*
Jeanette Winterson (The Stone Gods, 2007)
Juli Zeh (The Method, 2012 English trans)
Check out Karen Traviss, she’s written a lot of Star Wars novels plus some Halo & Gears of War novels along with a whole host of other stuff!!
I will have to have a think, I believe you’ve already listed the main ones I’d have mentioned :)
thanks Ju
Ooh yes, thanks. I love Karen Traviss!
Emma Newman
If you’re including self-published, Patty Jansen.
(both also do fantasy)
Thanks Graham! x
Allow me to be of assistance!
SF for sure:
Claire Corbett – When We Have Wings
Nnedi Okorafor – Lagoon
Alexis Wright – The Swan Book
Karen Healey – When We Wake
Noura Noman – Ajwan
Meg Mundell – Black Glass
Suzanne Collins – Hunger Games Trilogy
These next two were fantasy-science-fictionish? Depends on your definitions I guess:
G. Willow Wilson – Alif the Unseen
Ambelin Kwaymullina – The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf
Bernardine Evaristo’s “Blonde Roots” is alternate history, if you are including that.
Ursula LeGuin’s “Lavinia” came out in 2008…it’s not SF…but she is an SF author.
Likewise, Nalo Hopkinson’s “New Moon’s Arms,” published in 2007, is not SF, but she has had SF novels published, “Midnight Robber” was out in 2000.
Octavia Butler’s “Kindred” came out in 2004. She said that it was fantasy, not SF, since she didn’t explain the time travel element (which is why I left out Lauren Beaukes’ “Shining Girls”) but the omnibus of her Xenogenesis series was released in 2000, and that is definitely SF.
Audrey Niffenegger’s “Time Traveller’s Wife” – is it literary or SF?
The Atwood. Cat Sparks would be sad if I didn’t mention her. Oryx and Crake is 2003. No comment :)
Myself (Liz Williams). Also Steph Swainston, Mary Gentle, Jacey Bedford, Cherith Baldry.
Hi Liz, I love yours, Steph’s, and Mary Gentle’s work, but Jacey and Cherith are new to me. Thanks!
Hi Thoraiya, thanks so much. Is Ambelin’s YA? I’m staying out of the YA reading arena on this. Also, you have a novel coming out don’t, or newly out don’t you? best Marianne
Thanks, Graham!
Heya Marianne – I’d like to put forward Alena Graedon, author of The Word Exchange – one of my fav books of last year. I’m going to say that it’s sf over fantasy, as it deqls with the technological development of a virus that affects human language. Loved this book an immense amount.
Lois Bujold, Tanith Lee, Julian May, Martha Wells, Karen Miller (if tie SF novels count…).
Hi T, did LMBujold write SF post 2000?
Pat Murphy
Andrea Hairston
Sarah Hall
Kathleen Ann Goonan
Stephanie Saulter
Plus this list which is a couple of years old now and goes back way before 2000 but might help https://performativeutterance.wordpress.com/2011/06/17/225-rising/
Lauren Beukes
Claire North
Kaaron Warren
Jacqueline Koyanagi
Kim Lakin-Smith
Madeline Ashby
Cherie Priest
Cynthia Echterling
Mary Gentle in the list twice and what about Mary Robinette Kowal, Lois McMaster Bujold, Vonda N. McIntyre, Catherine Asaro.
Catherine Asaro is the big one that springs to mind. If you’re allowing self-published authors, I’d add Andrea K Höst and Patty Jansen. Especially as the former has been shortlisted for 3 (I think) Aurealis Awards.
Lois McMaster Bujold, of course!
M.C.A Hogarth
I’d like to nominate myself (Sandra Ulbrich Alamzan) for my novel Twinned Universes
No problem – and thank you! I’ll continue to have a think!
Gah! I was all excited about suggesting Mary Doria Russell as The Sparrow is one of my all time favourite sci-fi novels. Alas, that and the sequel were published in the 90s and after that she only seems to have published historical novels. *sad sigh*
How about Jacey Bedford – first Psi Tech novel out late 2014.
Diana Gabaldon
And how can you leave out Kit Reed?
Yep. Diplomatic Immunity, Cryoburn and Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance are all post-2000. Anne McCaffrey was also still writing post-2000. And Elizabeth Ann Scarborough wrote SF with McCaffrey. Jody Lynn Nye did too, but has SF in her own right as well.
I’d also suggest Cassandra Rose Clarke for her Mad Scientist’s Daughter. And Nike Sulway’s Rupetta could be seen as SF.
And how could I forget JD Robb and Mira Grant! Oh, and Jacqueline Carey has an SF series out.
Thanks Kev.
Thanks Lori!
Thanks Susan, she’s on the list.
Hi Emma, I read the Sparrow. Shame she hasn’t done something since then that’s SF! best M
Thanks Sandra!
Has she written any SF in the 2000’s, Ranelagh?
Thanks Tsana!
Thanks Roy, adding and updating.
New name to me will check it out. Thanks!
Got some of them, will check out the others, thanks Jenny.
Yeah, the thesis is time sensitive. They have to have written SF post 200 for the topic to be valid. I will check it out. Thanks!
I’ll have to go check my shelves, but in the meantime there might be a few listed here you haven’t got: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/women_sf_writers
happy reading! :-)
Thanks Helen! xxxx
Thanks, AV M. Will check it out.
Yes, Ambelin’s (and Karen Healey’s, Suzanne Collins’, maybe Noura Noman’s) are YA.
No novel for me yet, but thanks for thinking of me :)
Just a correction: while I have self-published most of my books, book 1 of the Ambassador series was, in fact, published by Ticonderoga Publications.
Amanda Bridgeman
Jennifer Foehner Wells
A short list of genre writers who don’t seem to have been mentioned yet:
Nina Allan (The Race, 2014)
Jennifer Marie Brissett (Elysium, 2014)
Monica Byrne (The Girl in the Road, 2014)
L Timmel Duchamp (Marq’ssan novels, 2005-2009)
Carol Emshwiller (The Mount, 2002)
JM Frey (Triptych, 2011)
Emmi Itaranta (Memory of Water, 2014)
Johanna Sinisalo (Not Before Sundown, Birdbrain, Blood of Angels)
EJ Swift (Osiris, 2012, Cataveiro, 2014, Tamaruq, 2015)
Jo Walton (Small Change trilogy, My Real Children, The Just City)
A longer list of ‘mainstream’ writers who have not been mentioned but who have at one time or another been described as writing science fiction (and who I consider to be writing science fiction). The ones marked with an asterisk might not stand up to a ‘core genre’ definition of science fiction, though.
Kate Atkinson (Life After Life, 2013)
Ioanna Bourazopoulou (What Lot’s Wife Saw, 2013 English trans)
Jennifer Egan (A Visit From the Goon Squad, 2010)
Lauren Groff (Arcadia, 2012)
Xiaolu Guo (UFO in Her Eyes, 2009)
Liz Jensen (various, including The Rapture, 2009)
Joanna Kavenna (The Birth of Love, 2010)
Lydia Millet (Oh Pure and Radiant Heart, 2006)*
Jan Morris (Hav, 2007)*
Sarah Moss (Cold Earth)
Ruth Ozeki (A Tale for the Time Being, 2013)
Jane Rogers (The Testament of Jessie Lamb, 2011)
Scarlett Thomas (various, including The End of Mr Y)
Kit Whtifield (In Great Waters, 2008)*
Jeanette Winterson (The Stone Gods, 2007)
Juli Zeh (The Method, 2012 English trans)
No sf, but Dreamers of the Day is a posthumous fantasy — the narrator is dead, and is describing the events of the 1920s as seen from the present day world. It’s very good.
Here’s mine:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BO9GIHU
I do have other stories set in this universe, but they’re not novel-length. I do have a sequel to this book in progress.
Hogarth has many books out, so I will link to her author page on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/M.C.A.-Hogarth/e/B00448EEPQ/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_3?qid=1421501262&sr=1-3
Yes, Vonda seems to have only had short stories and Trek tie in novels published since 2000.
I think it’s safe to add me to the self-published list. Thank you for compiling this list as it gives me a resource to add to my own reading list.
http://smarturl.it/Fluency
Shameless (well, perhaps a little shameful) addition of myself. Here’s my Amazon Author Page. G. S. Jennsen: http://www.amazon.com/G.-S.-Jennsen/e/B00J728WHU/.
Bookmarking the list! Many of my favorite authors are on it, but I look forward to discovering more great writers.
Thank you so much!
Thanks Jen – awesome.
This is brilliant Niall, thanks so much.
Got it!
OK thanks for confirming. Not including tie-in novels at this stage. Looking for original work.
Maureen McHugh.
Karen lord
Kristine Smith
Tanya Huff
Jean Johnson
Laura E Reeve
Helen Patrice, “A Woman of Mars” – blurbed by Ray Bradbury
Thanks!
Thanks, Belinda!
Thanks Keith!
Got her, thanks!
She’s had at least 4 SF novels published post-2000.
Thanks Tsana!
Looks like I wasn’t added to the list. I belong in the self-published section.
I don’t know your cut-off date, but I have a science fiction novel coming out from Aqueduct Press in August of this year: The Weave, by Nancy Jane Moore. It’s my first novel, though not my first science fiction — I’ve published a lot of short fiction. http://www.aqueductpress.com/forthcoming-pubs.php
LJ Cohen (me) indie published, DERELICT sf novel 2014
Alex Adams, White Horse
Jennifer Pelland, Machine
Kirsten Beyer
Ilsa J. Bick
Margaret Wander Bonanno
Diane Carey
Brenda Cooper
Elaine Cunningham
Britta Dennison
J. M. Dillard
Diane Duane
Christie Golden
Heather Jarman
Rhonda Mason (JUL 2015)
Una McCormack
Sandra McDonald
S. D. Perry
Judith Reeves-Stevens (w/Garfield Reeves-Stevens)
Kathy Tyers
Susan Wright
Sarah Zettel
Thanks Nancy. I shall look out for it! best MDP
Thanks, LJ. Will add you to my list! best MDP
Thanks, Morgan. Alex is new to me. best MDP
Thanks, G!! Do they all have SF published after 2000? best MDP
got it! Thanks!