On Tue, 16 Sep 1997, DAVID CHRISTENSON wrote:
> Mention of Susanna Sturgis on this list reminded me that I have a book
> edited by her, "The Women Who Walk Through Fire," on my stack of to-read
> books here. It sparked my curiosity - I understand Crossing Press
> regularly has several F/SF titles in its catalogue. Interesting that
> this specialty press should publish genre material - it made me wonder
> about the intended audience, and the interaction (if any) between this
> small press and the bigger world of SF.
>
> Does this book's subtitle, "Women's Fantasy & SF" signify something
> about the material other than the fact that it's written by women (as
> "women's music" seems to)? Are books by Crossing Press and others (Naiad
> ?) getting respect in the SF field? I'm also wondering how these small
> feminist presses are faring in the current publishing upheavals, if
> anybody has any inside info.
> --
Sturgis has done a series of Women's SF and fantasy anthologies for
Crossing Press, all of them highly regarded. Largely on the strength of
those anthologies, plus some book reviewing (primarily, I think, for the
Lamda Book Report), Sturgis was co-guest of honor at the last WisCon with
Melissa Scott.
The question of the "respect" science fiction published by small women's
presses is getting is a complex one. In general it tends to be ignored by
the major award nominators and genre review sources, although such books
do, interestingly enough, get reviewed in Publishers Weekly with some
regularity. Perhaps the major in-genre influence serving to bring such
works to wider public attention is the Tiptree Award and its wonderful
annotated list of honor books.
On the other hand, not all of the sf published by the women's presses
deserves serious attention. A certain percentage of it, as with a certain
percentage of the sf put out by gay publishing houses, is lightweight,
often rather sexy, froth.
Mike Levy
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