The first full week of Women in SF&F Month has come and gone, and it was a great week thanks to last week’s guests! I’m also excited about next week, but before I announce the upcoming guests, here are links to last week’s essays and giveaway in case you missed them:
- Renay (Lady Business) opened this year’s Women in SF&F series with a discussion of gender resulting from her challenge to read 100 unique women writers this year. She also discussed one of her favorite things—recommendation lists!—and the updated list of SFF books by women that now includes last year’s submissions. She also shared that we are looking for recommendations of 10 SFF books by women you’ve read and loved in the last year, old or new.
- Fonda Lee (Zeroboxer) wrote about her decision to write with a female name despite being told she may want to consider using a male or gender neutral pen name due to writing “boy books.”
- Stephanie Burgis (Kat, Incorrigible; Masks and Shadows; Congress of Secrets) thanked the women who showed her the way into the field of fantasy and science fiction: specifically, Robin McKinley, Patricia A. McKillip, Emma Bull, and Judith Tarr.
- Charlie Jane Anders (All the Birds in the Sky, “Six Months, Three Days”) disagreed with Yoda and discussed the vital role anger plays in story creation, character development, and worldbuilding.
- Beth Cato (The Clockwork Dagger, Breath of Earth) discussed the difficulty she had finding a healer heroine as a main character—and so she wrote one, busting the trope of the weakling female healer with inspiration from World War I front line nurses, in her Clockwork Dagger books.
- I’m running an international giveaway of one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors, which became the most recommended book on the recommendation list after adding last year’s submissions: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin.
And now, it’s time to announce next week’s schedule, starting with tomorrow!
April 11: Zen Cho (Sorcerer to the Crown, Spirits Abroad, Cyberpunk: Malaysia)
April 12: Ilana C. Myer (Last Song Before Night)
April 13: Sara Letourneau (writer and reviewer, Official Website & Blog)
April 14: Elizabeth Bonesteel (The Cold Between)
April 15: Helen Lowe (Wall of Night Series, Thornspell)
April 16: Book Giveaway
