SF by Women, 2001-2010

Index to discussions about women in sf that took place here and elsewhere in Autumn 2010. The initial impetus for the discussion was Tricia Sullivan’s observation that only one woman has won the Arthur C Clarke Award in the last decade, compared to five in the previous decade. As a partial response to this imbalance, I ran a poll to determine the top ten science fiction novels by women published 2001-2010 (by writers of any nationality, in any country). In total, 101 people participated (each sending up to ten nominations), and I presented the results in a “Focus Week” at the start of December 2010. Please feel free to email with any questions.

• Background
  • Geek Syndicate interview with Tricia Sullivan that highlights the paucity of women winning the Clarke Award recently
  • “Women and the Clarke” discussion
  • “Planning and Polling“: the launch of the poll to determine the best recent sf novels by women, as a partial response to Gollancz’s all-male Future Classics promotion
  • “Lists and Conversations“: links to discussions elsewhere
• Personal top tens and discussion elsewhere
  • Jo Walton at Tor.com
  • Liviu Suciu at Fantasy Book Critic
  • Cheryl Morgan
  • Tansy Rayner Roberts
  • Discussion at io9
  • Martin Wisse
  • “Women and Black Static” by David Hebblethwaite
  • Paul Kincaid on six women sf writers
  • Summary by Martin Lewis
  • L Timmel Duchamp
  • Marianne de Pierres
  • Snickelish
  • alitheapipkin
  • Stella Matutina
  • Richard at Solar Bridge
  • Joe Sherry (and comment on the final list)
  • My personal top ten
    • UFO in Her Eyes by Xiaolu Guo
    • The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall
    • Life by Gwyneth Jones
    • Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet
    • Hav by Jan Morris
    • Living Next-Door to the God of Love by Justina Robson
    • Not Before Sundown by Johanna Sinisalo
    • Maul by Tricia Sullivan
    • The Modern World by Steph Swainston
    • In Great Waters by Kit Whitfield
• The Focus Week
  • “I Declare This Focus Week Open“: including some details of the voting population
  • The Future Classics: the top ten from 101 sets of nominations
    • 1 The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall
    • 2 Maul by Tricia Sullivan
    • 3 Natural History by Justina Robson
    • 4 The Time-Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
    • 5= Spirit by Gwyneth Jones and Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
    • 7 Life by Gwyneth Jones
    • 8 Lavinia by Ursula K Le Guin
    • 9 Farthing by Jo Walton
    • 10= Bold as Love by Gwyneth Jones and City of Pearl by Karen Traviss
  • Other analysis of the data
    • “The 2010 contenders“: books published in 2010 that didn’t have quite enough support to make the top 10
    • “The Ones That Got Away“: books from just outside the eligible period
    • “Top Ten Writers“: aggregating votes by writer rather than by book
    • “Yet More Top Tens“: lists for UK, US and rest of the world
    • “The List“: every book that received at least one nomination
  • Book discussions
    • Ancient Light by Mary Gentle, with Duncan Lawie
    • Lightborn by Tricia Sullivan, with Nic Clarke, David Hebblethwaite, and Nick Hubble
  • Reviews
    • Zoo City by Lauren Beukes
    • Four Stories by Nina Allan
    • Birdbrain by Johanna Sinisalo
  • Essay
    • The Flowers of War: Sarah Hall’s The Carhullan Army by Nick Hubble (from Vector 258)
  • Link round-ups
    • Linking it Real (Tuesday)
    • Linking Out (Wednesday)
    • Going Linker (Thursday)
    • Chasing the Links (Friday)
  • Loose Ends: final links, a top ten including series, and other wrap-up notes