Oh! I still have a little bit of time in #Internationalwomensday, don't I? Some of the *great* sf/f writers are/were women.

I just spoke in another thread of CJ Cherryh's extraordinary skill at exposition in fiction.

But there are plenty more.

Andre Norton lit my youth, and is probably the oldest exemplar I know of.

Zilpha Keatley Snyder was there, too, with delightful tween-level fantasy, especially _Black and Blue Magic_.

Nora *fucking* Jemisin has won, so far, *three* Hugo Best Novel awards, two of them back to back, one for each book in the Broken Earth trilogy.

Ann Leckie's creations are universally regarded as top-notch sf.

Elizabeth Moon, with hard sf in usually military settings.

Octavia Butler was basically a god.

Martha Wells is big these days cuz of the MurderBot books, but her backlist is fantastic.

Ursula Leguin, who I think might have been the first female sf/f author I ever read whose name made it clear she was female, is, of course, *legendary*.

Arkady Martine has done some truly impressive work, esp. _A Desolation Called Peace_.

There are also writers who don't specialize in sf/f, but who have written there:

Margaret Atwood's _Oryx and Crake_ stands out.

As does Mary Doria Russell's *stunning* _Sparrow_ duology. (Be prepared to feel sad.)

The list goes on and on and on:

Charlie Jane Anders,
Tamsyn Muir,
Connie Willis,
Mira Grant,
Mary Robinette Kowal,
Lois McMaster Bujold,
Joan Vinge,
Nancy Kress

I am *certainly* forgetting many names I should not, but I am old and tired and working from memory.

Women have written some of the best sf/f of all time.

If you want to recommend others, just reply. We could all use a good list of women who've written sf/f on #internationalwomensday !

@GeePawHill

I think James Tiptree/Alice Sheldon deserves a shoutout.

Somehow especially relevant in the context of women's day. She really saw how well scifi could be a vehicle for expressing what it's like to be a woman in our world. Uncomfortable reading, sometimes, for men.