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.

@GeePawHill Martha Wells, for the Murderbot series. Megan Lindholm (better known as Robin Hobb), for Alien Earth - it's her only science fiction work, but it blew me away.

Of course, the first science fiction writer was Margaret Cavendish. The Blazing World is a very interesting read, although it's early long-form prose, so not as easy to read as Frankenstein, which so many people think was the first.

I'd also put Anne McCaffrey there, especially for The Ship Who Sang and Freedom's Landing.

@Rhube @GeePawHill

What a wonderful list! Here's one more:

Micaiah Johnson "The Space Between Worlds"