Obscure and Fabulous Bookiness

[scribblemyname]

From anghara:

"sartorias suggested that she at least might be one of the people who might be interested in reading a list of this ilk, as opposed to "This Is A List of All The Popular Kids" which keeps on circulating in blogland. So, then. How about I start the ball rolling, right here?

What is the best book you've read recently (or the best book you've read NOT so recently) by a writer whose name does not immediately start ringing bells?

One of the people who started this discussion, [Bad username: beth_bernobich"], has put up a blog post which puts forth her (enviable) writing credentials and is pretty much a holler of "hey! Over here!" So she headlines this list, right here. I think that perhaps fewer people that I might like would have put ME forward for such a list, so I shall shamelessly add my own name to it. I might also add the name of Andrea Hairston, who I think is basically very well known in some circles and not at all in others and who deserves a wider audience.

So, then. Let's make it a game. Pick this up, add a name, pass it on. Let's have a list of folks whom you think need to have a wider audience. That's three names you have right there - Beth Bernobich, Alma Alexander, Andrea Hairston. Over to you. Let the list grow. Repost. Retweet. Let's see how many writers are out there whose books and stories you've read, and you think other people might WANT to read..."

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So the scribbler adds four... [linked to LJ or Goodreads]

The List

Beth Bernobichbeth_bernobich
Alma Alexanderanghara
Andrea Hairstonsartorias
Jane Hamilton: The Guardian
Tracy Groot: The Brother's Keeper
Terry L. Fivash: Joseph
Zenna Henderson: Ingathering

Comments

[beth-bernobich.livejournal.com]

He's actively trying to add to the list, so if you find out the decade and leave a comment, he'll update the list in the post itself. He started the series in answer to the widely-held perception that women don't write much SF, or if they do, it's only in the last couple decades.

(He's since added me to the list. Just an oversight, I know. It's just that this came right after a couple other similar incidents. I was beginning to think that I had stumbled into an invisibility field.)

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I found his posts, and it was interesting to do the research anyway. So far I've added Goudge, Lovett, PL Travers (Mary Poppins!) and LM Boston.

I have a hunch that it was probably easier for women writers to break into children's fantasy. Or maybe it's that people found fantasy in general to be more of a kiddy thing until the 1960s or so? Because people like Edith Nesbit and Dodie Smith seem to have conbined fantasy for children with non-SFF works for adults. (Goudge did too, but she wrote a ton of books and I'm not sure if any of her adult ones are fantasy.)

[beth-bernobich.livejournal.com]

And yet, there were plenty of women SF/F writers who wrote adult SF before the 50s. Just check out this link:

http://books.google.com/books?id=ZoNDebTvUnsC&pg=PR11#v=onepage&q=%22table%201%22&f=false

And scroll down to page 317.

Unfortunately, the perception is that women don't write SF, and though people say, "Well, they write fantasy instead," those same people forget to include women writers when they make the fantasy lists, too. It's all what Joanna Russ described in How To Suppress Women's Writing. It's not deliberate, but that only makes it harder to eradicate.