 First edition | |
| Cover artist | Ann Dalton |
|---|---|
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Published | May 1976 |
| Publisher | Fawcett Gold Medal |
| Media type | Anthology |
| OCLC | 633283420 |
Aurora: Beyond Equality is an anthology of feminist science fiction edited by Vonda N. McIntyre and Susan Janice Anderson and published in 1976. [1] [2]
Vonda N. McIntyre and Susan Janice Anderson began work on Aurora: Beyond Equality in 1974. The anthology followed other collections, such as the 1975 volume Women of Wonder edited by Pamela Sargent, that sought to explore gender in science fiction and the variation in writing style between male and female authors. McIntyre's "Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand" was among the pieces published in Women of Wonder. [1] For Aurora: Beyond Equality, McIntyre and Anderson asked contributors for stories that, in their words, "would explore the future of human potential after equality between the sexes had been achieved". The editors disliked many of the stories they received, and the collection needed a year to be put together. It was eventually published in May 1976 by Fawcett Gold Medal. [1] [2] [3]
Aurora: Beyond Equality contained eight stories by seven authors, along with an essay by Ursula K. Le Guin. [1] Le Guin's essay, titled "Is Gender Necessary", was a defense of the society of androgynous individuals she depicted in The Left Hand of Darkness , and her choice to use male pronouns for all of them. [3] McIntyre and Anderson were under the impression that they had selected stories from four men and four women; in fact, two of the stories had come from the same author, Alice Sheldon, writing under two different pseudonyms (James Tiptree Jr. and Raccoona Sheldon). [1] The other women authors were Mildred Downey Broxon, Joanna Russ, and Marge Piercy, while the male authors were Dave Skal, P. J. Plauger and Craig Strete. [1]
Science fiction scholar Mike Ashley stated that most of the stories in the collection failed in their attempt to portray a humanistic society, instead depicting "how hopeless men were and how superior women could be". According to Ashley, Piercy's "Woman on the Edge of Time", an excerpt from a novel of the same name published later that year, was the only piece depicting a non-sexist future. [1] Tiptree's Houston, Houston, Do You Read? won the Nebula and Jupiter awards for best novella in 1976, [4] [5] and the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1977, [6] though it was criticized by some reviewers, including Marion Zimmer Bradley. [1] Plauger's story "Here Be Dragons" entirely avoided using a pronoun for one of the characters, thereby leaving their gender ambiguous. The technique, later also used by McIntyre in her novel Dreamsnake , is described as delivering a feminist lesson, that an individual's capabilities and character were of greater importance than their gender. [2]
Feminist science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction focused on theories that include feminist themes including but not limited to gender inequality, sexuality, race, economics, and reproduction. Feminist SF is political because of its tendency to critique the dominant culture. Some of the most notable feminist science fiction works have illustrated these themes using utopias to explore a society in which gender differences or gender power imbalances do not exist, or dystopias to explore worlds in which gender inequalities are intensified, thus asserting a need for feminist work to continue.
Science fiction and fantasy serve as important vehicles for feminist thought, particularly as bridges between theory and practice. No other genres so actively invite representations of the ultimate goals of feminism: worlds free of sexism, worlds in which women's contributions are recognized and valued, worlds that explore the diversity of women's desire and sexuality, and worlds that move beyond gender.
Alice Bradley Sheldon was an American science fiction and fantasy author better known as James Tiptree Jr., a pen name she used from 1967 to her death. It was not publicly known until 1977 that James Tiptree Jr. was a woman. From 1974 to 1985 she also used the pen name Raccoona Sheldon. Tiptree was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2012.
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the Earthsea fantasy series. She was first published in 1959, and her literary career spanned nearly sixty years, producing more than twenty novels and over a hundred short stories, in addition to poetry, literary criticism, translations, and children's books. Frequently described as an author of science fiction, Le Guin has also been called a "major voice in American Letters". Le Guin herself said she would prefer to be known as an "American novelist".
Houston, Houston, Do You Read? is a novella by James Tiptree Jr.. It won a Nebula Award for Best Novella in 1976 and a Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1977.
Vonda Neel McIntyre was an American science fiction writer and biologist.
Star Songs of an Old Primate is the third short story collection by Alice Sheldon. It was published by Del Rey Books in 1978. It was the first of Tiptree's books published after the revelation that Tiptree was a female, rather than male, writer.
Dreamsnake is a 1978 science fiction novel by American writer Vonda N. McIntyre. It is an expansion of her 1973 novelette "Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand", for which she won her first Nebula Award. The story is set on Earth after a nuclear holocaust. The central character, Snake, is a healer who uses genetically modified serpents to cure sickness—one snake is an alien "dreamsnake", whose venom gives dying people pleasant dreams. The novel follows Snake as she seeks to replace her dreamsnake after its death.
Nebula Winners Twelve is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Gordon R. Dickson. It was first published in hardcover by Harper & Row in February 1978, and reprinted in December of the same year. A paperback edition followed from Bantam Books in April 1979.
A Woman's Liberation: A Choice of Futures By and About Women is a collection of science fiction stories edited by the author Connie Willis and Sheila Williams. Each story was originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction and/or Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazines.
The 1977 Annual World's Best SF is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha, the sixth volume in a series of nineteen. It was first published in paperback by DAW Books in May 1977, followed by a hardcover edition issued in September of the same year by the same publisher as a selection of the Science Fiction Book Club. For the hardcover edition the original cover art of Jack Gaughan was replaced by a new cover painting by Richard V. Corben. The paperback edition was reissued by DAW in 1983 under the variant title Wollheim's World's Best SF: Series Six, this time with cover art by Bernal. A British hardcover edition was published by Dennis Dobson in November 1979 under the variant title The World's Best SF 4.
The Best Science Fiction of the Year #3 is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Terry Carr, the third volume in a series of sixteen. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books in July 1974, and reissued in July 1976.
Full Spectrum is a series of five anthologies of fantasy and science fiction short stories published between 1988 and 1995 by Bantam Spectra. The first anthology was edited by Lou Aronica and Shawna McCarthy; the second by Aronica, McCarthy, Amy Stout, and Pat LoBrutto; the third and fourth by Aronica, Stout, and Betsy Mitchell; and the fifth by Jennifer Hershey, Tom Dupree, and Janna Silverstein.
Nebula Award Showcase is a series of annual science fiction and fantasy anthologies collecting stories that have won or been nominated for the Nebula Award, awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a nonprofit association of professional science fiction and fantasy writers founded in 1965 by Damon Knight as the Science Fiction Writers of America.
Nebula Award Stories 9 is an anthology of award winning science fiction short works edited by Kate Wilhelm. It was first published in the United Kingdom in hardcover by Gollancz in November 1974. The first American edition was published by Harper & Row in January 1975. Paperback editions followed from Corgi Books in the U.K. in November 1976, and Bantam Books in the U.S. in July 1978. The American editions bore the variant title Nebula Award Stories Nine. The book has also been published in German.
Nebula Award Stories 11 is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by Ursula K. Le Guin. It was first published in the United Kingdom in hardcover by Gollancz in November 1976. The first American edition was published in hardcover by Harper & Row in February 1977. Paperback editions followed from Corgi in the U.K. in July 1978, and Bantam Books in the U.S. in August 1978. The American editions bore the variant title Nebula Award Stories Eleven.
Nebula Awards Showcase 2004 is an anthology of award-winning science fiction short works edited by Vonda N. McIntyre. It was first published in trade paperback by Roc/New American Library in March 2004.
"The Queen Bee" is a science fiction short story by Randall Garrett. First published in Astounding Science Fiction in December 1958, it has drawn harsh criticism in the following decades, with Michael Dirda of the Washington Post noting that it is "often regarded as the most sexist short story in the history of science fiction".
"Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand" is a science fiction short story by Vonda N. McIntyre. First published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact in October 1973, it was anthologized multiple times, and also formed the first chapter of McIntyre's 1978 novel Dreamsnake. Set after a nuclear holocaust, "Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand" tells of Snake, a healer who uses the venom of three genetically engineered snakes to heal, and follows her effort to heal a nomad boy of a tumor. The story won the Nebula Award for Best Novelette in 1974. It was also nominated for the Hugo Award in the same category, and for the Locus Award for Best Short Fiction. Scholar Anne Hudson Jones called it a powerful story, and stated that its themes were "mythic and universal".
Nino Cipri is a science fiction writer, editor, and educator. Their works have been nominated for the Nebula, Hugo, Locus, World Fantasy, and Shirley Jackson Awards.