by Lisa Yaszek
First published 2018
Lisa Yaszek presents twenty-five science fiction stories written by women across decades of the genre's evolution. The collection spans from early pulp magazine contributors through New Wave innovators of the 1960s. These authors crafted narratives featuring alien societies ruled by female leaders, military women navigating pregnancy during combat, and suburban wives rebelling against social expectations. Yaszek's curation reveals how female writers consistently challenged science fiction's traditional masculine perspectives. The anthology demonstrates that women have long envisioned alternative futures where gender roles shift and power structures transform. Each story represents a different approach to reimagining society through speculative fiction. The collection shows how these writers used science fiction's possibilities to explore feminist themes and question conventional assumptions about women's roles in both present and future worlds.
Genres: short-stories, science-fiction, feminist-theory
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, reimagining-society
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
531 pages · Hardcover · Library of America