Susan Wood

Susan Wood (1945-1981) was a scholar of Canadian literature and science fiction, and a central figure in the establishment and development of feminist science fiction in the 1970s. She arranged and moderated the first "Women in Science Fiction" panel at MidAmericon in Kansas City in 1976. She arranged and hosted the first "Room of Our Own" separate women's space at the Worldcon in Phoenix in 1978. She inspired the creation of the first female-oriented, subsequently women-only, Amateur Press Association, A Woman's Apa, also known as AWA, by Janet Small (later married to science fiction author Robert Charles Wilson, and subsequently divorced from him) and [to be filled in] in 1976. AWA was a key locus for the growth of feminist sf fandom in the 1970s.

When she was married to science fiction fan Mike Glicksohn, and co-editor with him of the fanzine Energumen, she also produced her own fanzine, Aspidistra, with a more feminist slant. She went on to edit a special science fiction issue of the Canadian feminist quarterly literary journal Room of One's Own, and to edit Ursula K. Le Guin's first book of essays, The Language of the Night, as well as write the introduction for it.

Wood won a Hugo Award in 1974, 1977, and 1981 for Best Fan Writer, and another in 1973, with Mike Glickson, for Energumen as Best Amateur Magazine. In 1975, she was the co-Fan Guest of Honor at Aussiecon I. At Aussiecon, she moderated a panel, "Discovering Worlds", with Ursula Le Guin, Stella Lees, Peter Nichols, Anna Shepherd, Ann Sidman (tapes at the Science Fiction Oral History Archives).

She earned her doctorate in Canadian literature from the University of Saskatchewan at Regina in (year), and took a job as a professor at (university in Vancouver).

Wood was always a very public figure on the science fiction scene, both writing a great deal for fannish and professional publications, and also very visible on the convention circuit. Her untimely death was a great blow to the community.

Stories

Gregory Rihn, WisCon 31, on an SM in Feminist Science Fiction panel:

... there were some people in the audience that welcomed a reissue of Lichtenberg's "Sime/Gen" books. (Very interesting, since it was the late Susan Wood's massive dissing of those stories that was a massive controversy at WisCon 2 and helped put future WisCons on the overtly feminist track.)

Further story from Greg Rihn:

although I was at WisCon 2, I wasn't at that particular panel, although everyone there felt the impact of it.

The original panel topic was on whether reading "trash" (described as Star Trek novels, etc.) was good for you, bad for you, inspired you to say "I can write better than this," etc. Lichtenberg's work came up, in the context that the Sime/Gen books were, according to proponents, progressive in showing same-sex relationships, since the Sime/Gen thing although explicitly sexual, was not limited to male/female or female/male. Susan replied with a very scathing critique to the effect that the Sime/Gen dynamic was just the same old rape fantasy, nothing new. (At that time there was no discussion of such a thing as "feminist" BDSM--). At that time we didn't have "overflow programming" space either, so the very heated discussion spilled out into the corridors and building lobbies and electrified the whole convention. This was the first time most of the people present had heard an explicitly feminist critique on anything, plus Wood had dared to openly attack the work of a published woman author who had a sizable fan following, as well as criticizing Trek and Trek fandom. The controversy contributed to a schism in the WisCon committee, with a few people dropping out and the progressive majority deciding that the feminist slant was an exciting thing that should be followed up.

That's the legend as I know it. I want to dig around in my old program books, etc., and see if I can find the program name and description and who else was on it. Jeanne Gomoll might be able to give a better description of what happened, since she was one of the heads of the con at the time and if she wasn't actually at the panel, certainly heard all about it first hand.

See also: Jacqueline Lichtenberg

External links

• Science Fiction Oral History Archives: http://www.sfoha.org/catalog/aus.html
• Description and bio from UBC archives: http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/u_arch/wood.html
• Facebook "Friends of Susan Wood" page, viewable by all, joinable by any member of Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=159173551968
• Susan's fanzine, Aspidistra: http://fanac.org/fanzines/Aspidistra/
• Collection of Susan's fannish writings, The Best Of Susan Wood: http://fanac.org/fanzines/BestOfSusanWood/
• More Susan Wood fanzines: http://efanzines.com/SusanWood/index.htm
• Energumen, the Hugo-winning fanzine Susan co-edited with then-husband Mike Glicksohn: http://efanzines.com/Energumen/index.htm
• Blog post on Susan Wood: http://amygdalagf.blogspot.com/2009/09/not-sideshow.html
• Another blog post on Susan Wood: http://www.cheryl-morgan.com/?p=6357&cpage=1
• Andrew Porter, "Susan Wood". Starship, Spring 1981, p. 41.