Women of Other Worlds

Merrick, Helen and Tess Williams. Women of Other Worlds: Excursions through SF and Feminism. University of Western Australia Press (December 1999).

Women of Other Worlds is an anthology of criticism and fiction, edited by Helen Merrick and Tess Williams.

Essays from Australian feminist sf critics

Table of Contents

• Introduction, by Jeanne Gomoll (1);
• "An envoy from Senectutus: Wiscon 20 guest of honour speech," by Ursula K. Le Guin (12);
• "Handwork" by Rebecca Marjesdatter (fiction) (p. 20);
• "The small black box of morality" by Eleanor Arnason (fiction) (p. 24);
• "Reading piebald patterns in Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ellen Peel (p. 29);
• "And she was the word" by Tess Williams (fiction) (p. 41);
• "Of women and wonder: a conversation with Suzy McKee Charnas" by Bill Clemente (p. 60);
• "A beauty, a phantom, and two talking heads: the psychology of confinement in Suzy McKee Charnas' 'Beauty and the Opera'" by Jennifer Stevenson (p. 82);
• "Notes of a border crosser" by Susanna Sturgis (p. 102);
• "From female man to feminist fan: uncovering 'herstory' in the annals of sf fandom" by Helen Merrick (p. 115);
• "A non-traveller spends a month away from home" by Jessica Amanda Salmonson (p. 140);
• "And Salome danced" by Kelley Eskridge (fiction) (p. 147);
• "The erotics of gender ambiguity: a Fem-SF symposium" compiled by Helen Merrick (p. 162);
• "The kidnapping of Baroness 5" by Katherine MacLean (fiction) (p. 184);
• "Of synners and brainworms: feminism on the wire" by Rebecca Holden (p. 209);
• "Home by the sea" by Élisabeth Vonarburg (fiction) (p. 228);
• "Writing from the body" by Nicola Griffith (p. 247);
• "A habit of waste" by Nalo Hopkinson (fiction) (p. 261);
• "Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower: one alternative to to a futureless future" by Lisbeth Gant-Britton (p. 277);
• Excerpt from The freedom maze by Delia Sherman (fiction) (p. 295);
• "Hush my mouth" by Suzette Haden Elgin (fiction) (p. 309);
• "The onion skin theory of identity, the paint pot theory of gender, and the Blu-tack theory of position" by Rosaleen Love (p. 319);
• "The universe of things" by Gwyneth Jones (fiction) (p. 329);
• "Illusion and expectation: the baking of a science fiction award" by Pat Murphy (p. 342);
• "Ideologically labile fruit crisp" by Eileen Gunn (recipe & commentary) (p. 351);
• "Tiptree stories" by Justine Larbalestier (p. 355);
• "The Marianas Islands" by Karen Joy Fowler (fiction) (p. 370);
• "Letterspace: in the chinks between published fiction and published criticism" by Lois McMaster Bujold and Sylvia Kelso (p. 383);
• "Dvorzjak symphony" by Candas Jane Dorsey (fiction) (p. 410);
• "She undoes" by Greer Gilman (fiction) (p. 419);
• "Better to have loved: exerpts from a life" by Judith Merril (biography) (p. 422);
• Supplementary bibliography: Select list of additional critical resources on feminist SF (p. 443);
• Selected list of feminist SF (p. 462)

Editions

University of Western Australia: 1999 ISBN 1-876268-32-8 Paperback rrp $29.95

Publisher's blurb

"Science fiction is our society's literature of visualization. The blueprint of our imagining creates the structure of the future, whether we visualize it as repeating familiar patterns or full of new possibilities. And for feminists science fiction offers the space to imagine what new institutions, relationships and culture might look like... Feminist science fiction is a rich space at the intersection of popular literature and feminist thought, where extraordinary other worlds are imagined by writers such as Ursula Le Guin and Joanna Russ. Women of Other Worlds examines this phenomenon, collecting work from all aspects of feminist SF - fiction, poetry, criticism, fan-writing, even a recipe. It presents an international sampler of a vibrant and challenging form of contemporary women's writing." (from the blurb about the book)