Most of the books and stories that Otherwise Award jurors read to pick a winner are nominated by authors and readers. We need your suggestions. If you’ve read a work of science fiction or fantasy that explores or expands our notions of gender, please tell us about it by filling out the recommendation form below. If you have more than one, just fill out the form again with a new recommendation and repeat the process until you’ve told us about them all.
Recommendations close on the 1st of December, 2016. Because recommendations are accepted from everyone, and haven’t been reviewed by the jury, we request that nominated creators not publicize their appearance on this list: if you win, or your work shows up on an honor list or long list, please publicize to your heart’s content!
The 2016 Otherwise Award will be given in 2017, location to be determined.
To let us know something related to recommendations that doesn’t fit in the form, please email recommendations@otherwiseaward.org.
Recommendations are Closed
The current Recommendations for the Otherwise Award can be found here:
2025 Otherwise Award Recommendations
The 2016 Otherwise Award Recommendations
| Author | Title | Publisher | Comments | Sub Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Karen Heuler | Other Places | Aqueduct Press | This is a great, quirky, beautiful read. Heuler's stories are continually surprising. In "Other Places" she takes fairy tales and teases with the familiar before pulling out the rug and turning everything on its head. She tells spiritual science fiction stories and surreal fiction that strangely echoes reality. Her language choices are deft and moving. This book deserves attention. | 2016-11-30 20:49:41 | |
| John SandfordCtein | Saturn Run | G.P. Putnam's Sons | A new thriller of the future | 2016-11-29 11:08:23 | |
| Genevieve Valentine | Familiaris | Saga Press | A short story The Starlit Wood. Familiaris is for Canis familiaris. The female character(s) in their different settings all struggle with the lack of place in the world for a woman who doesn't want (has never wanted) children, and why there might be so many bad mothers in fairytales (or modern fiction *cough cough*) in the first place--because they never wanted to be mothers. | 2016-11-28 16:48:30 | |
| Navah WolfeDominik Parisien | The Starlit Wood | Saga Press | Those are the editors, not the authors. The authors are majority women(cis and trans); I think there are only three men? An anthology of retold and reworked fairytales, most of which are explicitly feminist, a la "Travels with the Snow Queen". Several emphasize the power of female friendship or romantic relationships between women against patriarchal systems. Most but not all fairytales are from Western cultures, unfortunately. | 2016-11-28 16:38:51 | |
| Corinne Duyvis | On the Edge of Gone | Features a mixed - race half Surinamese, half Dutch black autistic girl protagonist who has a black bisexual trans sister, written by a Dutch autistic woman. | 2016-11-26 14:46:25 | ||
| Meg Elison | Next of Kin | Terraform/Vice | Elison's exploration of bodily autonomy and gender politics in an alternate-timeline NASA space program is provocative and timely. It delves into the what-ifs of identity in a beautiful and disorienting way. motherboard.vice.com/read/next-of-kin | 2016-11-23 10:07:34 | |
| Susan ForestLucas K. Law | Strangers Among Us: Tales of the Underdogs and Outcasts | Laksa Media Groups Inc. | Nineteen speculative fiction authors tackle the division between mental health and mental illness; how the interplay between our minds' quirks and the diverse societies and cultures we live in can set us apart, or must be concealed, or become unlikely strengths. More information: http://laksamedia.com/strangers-among-us-an-anthology-with-a-cause/ | 2016-11-22 22:09:03 | |
| Rich Larson | Carnivores | Laksa Media Groups Inc. | A gay Neanderthal and his lover-partner-in-crime are on a heist at a trendy restaurant and get more than what they bargain for when they meet their match in a room freezer. Published in Strangers Among Us: Tales of the Underdogs and Outcasts (edited by Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law) | 2016-11-22 21:52:25 | |
| Hayden Trenholm | Marion's War | Laksa Media Groups Inc. | A sixty-nine year old maid has to deal with PSTD, aging, and alien politics of revenge when her past catches up with her and she is caught between the world she remembers and the world she forgets. Published in Strangers Among Us: Tales of the Underdogs and Outcasts (edited by Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law) | 2016-11-22 21:40:43 | |
| Jocelyn Samara | Rain | A webcomic about transidentity.rain.thecomicseries.com/ | 2016-11-21 17:59:07 | ||
| Kij Johnson | The Dreamquest of Vellitt Boe | Tor.com | Johnson riffs on H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath, but this time, in contrast to Lovecraft's resolutely masculine world, the protagonist is an older female professor, questing for a young female student. A unique commentary and reimagining from a feminist perspective. | 2016-11-17 20:58:07 | |
| Lucy Mihajlich | Interface | Interface Publishing | lmihajlich.wixsite.com/lucymihajlich | 2016-11-17 11:18:25 | |
| Karen Heuler | Other Places | Aqueduct Press | Women on earth, on spaceships, and on other worlds, encountering moral dilemmas and psychological surprises, and not always being the nicest person in the room.aqueductpress.com/books/978-1-61976-115-… | 2016-11-14 18:27:54 | |
| Peale McDaniel | Exog | Evernight | evernightpublishing.com/exog-by-peale-mc… | 2016-11-04 13:46:51 | |
| Debbie Urbanski | The Thread | Cicada | About a dystopia / utopia where attachment is necessary: everyone must be connected to a person or multiple people via a maroon thread. The narrator of the story is searching for a different way to live and express connection. cicadamag.com/thisissue/the-thread-excer… | 2016-11-03 08:29:24 | |
| Octavia Cade | The Convergence of Fairy Tales | Book Smugglers Publishing | The Sleeping Beauty woke with a heartbeat between her legs. Five classic fairy tales are reimagined by award-winning master of horror Octavia Cade in The Convergence of Fairy Tales. Sleeping Beauty. The Snow Queen. Snow White. The Frog Princess. Rapunzel. Five new fairy tales. Five different accounts of betrayal, of power, and rage.excerpt: http://thebooksmugglers.com/201… | 2016-11-01 04:50:02 | |
| JY Yang | The Blood That Pulses in the Veins of One | Uncanny Magazine | uncannymagazine.com/article/blood-pulses… | 2016-10-29 11:31:49 | |
| Nicasio Andres Reed | Painted Grassy Mire | Shimmer | shimmerzine.com/painted-grassy-mire/ | 2016-10-28 16:26:29 | |
| Rachel Herzl-Betz | Hold | Interlude Press, Duet imprint | 2016-10-27 13:30:53 | ||
| Alyssa Wong | You'll surely drown here if you stay | Uncanny magazine | Features a platonic crush between a girl and an ( implied to be) asexual boy. Most characters are sex workers, and portrayed sympathetically.uncannymagazine.com/article/youll-surely… | 2016-10-26 23:33:46 | |
| Dayna Ingram | All Good Children | Lethe Press | amazon.com/all-good-children-dayna-ingra… | 2016-10-25 17:30:47 | |
| N.K. Jemisin | The Obelisk Gate | Orbit | The novel explores what shapes us as people, what it means to be a person, how that changes, and gender and the roles we take are a part of that. | 2016-10-15 14:24:41 | |
| James Alan Gardner | "The Mutants Men Don't See" | Asimov's SF magazine | Title alone makes story worth consideration; fun look at biology (like "Even the Queen" by Willis) | 2016-10-10 20:47:45 | |
| Kim Antieau | Queendom: Feast of the Saints | Green Snake Publishing | Kim Antieau imagines a post-apocalypse world that is anything but dystopian. In Queendom: Feast of the Saints, most positions of power are held by women, and the structure of society encourages cooperation rather than competition. A truly visionary work, Queendom offers a future of possibility and hope, even when things don’t go as planned.amzn.to/2duo3ut | 2016-10-04 09:53:52 | |
| Kelly ThompsonSophie Campbell | Dark Jem (Jem and the Holograms, Volume 3) | IDW Publishing | 2016-10-03 17:51:49 | ||
| Alyssa Wong | A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers | Tor.com | tor.com/2016/03/02/a-fist-of-permutation… | 2016-10-03 16:04:56 | |
| K. Tait Jarboe | Nothing Spots Where Nobody Wants to Stay | Procyon Press | In Procyon SF Anthology 2016, http://www.tayenlane.com/procyon-science-fiction-anthology (I was the editor, if that matters/disqualifies. But the story is great & important.) | 2016-10-03 08:31:05 | |
| Debbie Urbanski | The Portal | The Sun | This short story concerns an asexual wife who, after struggling in her marriage, becomes obsessed with the idea of a portal world. thesunmagazine.org/issues/483/the_portal | 2016-10-03 05:43:23 | |
| Kameron Hurley | The Geek Feminist Revolution | Tor | could be appropriate for a special award | 2016-10-01 07:15:51 | |
| Megan Arkenberg | In the City of Kites and Crows | Kaleidotrope | Dark dystopian fantasy story with a polyamorous genderqueer protagonist.kaleidotrope.net/856-2/in-the-city-of-ki… | 2016-09-30 17:11:04 | |
| Lora Gray | Shadow Boy | Shimmer | shimmerzine.com/shadow-boy/ | 2016-09-29 11:22:49 | |
| A. M. Justice | A Wizard's Forge | Wise Ink Creative Publishing | In Knownearth, gender equality is the norm. The damsel in distress saves herself and then rescues the prince. amazon.com/dp/b01i0l8lv0 | 2016-09-26 20:18:57 | |
| D.J. Goodman | Infernal Corpse | Severed Press | amazon.com/infernal-corpse-d-j-goodman/d… | 2016-09-23 17:46:41 | |
| D.J. Goodman | Galapagos Below | Severed Press | amazon.com/galapagos-below-d-j-goodman/d… | 2016-09-23 17:44:28 | |
| Sammy Smith | The Watcher (from The Book of Angels) | Kristell Ink | 'The Watcher' explores the concept of love between a F/F couple, but where one side is an angel, completely destroying preconceived gender roles. It is stark, haunting and raw with twists and turns along the way. Simple and yet effective. | 2016-09-18 12:10:50 | |
| Melanie GillmanKori Michele Handwerker | The Other Side: An Anthology of Queer Paranormal Romance | Other Side Press | The Other Side is a 200 page YA anthology of queer paranormal romance comics, featuring 19 stories by 23 creators. Every story is positive, engaging look at different aspects of queer romance across the spectrum of gender and sexuality, paired with the escapist fun of paranormal fantasy. othersideanthology.com | 2016-09-14 07:15:30 | |
| Threasa Meads | Mothsong | Rare Bird Books, A Vireo Book | A spiral, a magical realist labyrinth, a lyric essay, a mirror-maze, and a mandala, Mothsong celebrates art’s capacity to facilitate and map posttraumatic growth. Mothsong creates a new myth for the moth as a symbol of the soul’s urge to heal, and in so doing, goes far beyond elevating the beauty within darkness.rarebirdbooks.com/mothsong/ | 2016-09-13 21:11:15 | |
| Meredith Debonnaire | The Life and Times of Angel Evans | Book Smugglers Publishing | thebooksmugglers.com/2016/09/life-times-… | 2016-09-13 05:20:56 | |
| Megan Arkenberg | Palingenesis | Shimmer Magazine | The mother of a genderqueer child struggles with their disappearance.shimmerzine.com/palingenesis-by-megan-ar… | 2016-09-12 08:20:05 | |
| M.C.A. Hogarth | Cantor for Pearls | Self | This is an awesome book with a "neuter" main character who is neither male nor female who is part of a sweet poly romance. amazon.com/gp/aw/d/b01lw50sop/ref=mp_s_a… | 2016-09-11 12:03:17 | |
| Marjorie LiuSana Takeda (artist) | Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening | Image Comics | 2016-09-10 16:45:41 | ||
| K. B. Wagers | Behind the Throne | Orbit | 2016-09-09 11:22:24 | ||
| Gabriel Squailia | Viscera | Talos Press | A woman with strange abilities travels across a bizarre war-torn land in an inventive and gruesomely comic fantasy tale. "Viscera is ultimately a story of self discovery, of being who you know yourself to be down deep in your gut even when the world wants to tell you otherwise. There is extreme ignorance and savagery in Viscera's fictional universe, but there is kindness and healing too—just like the world we know.” —Camille DeAngelis, author of Bones & All | 2016-09-09 10:21:56 | |
| Stephanie Burgis | Masks and Shadows | Pyr | The hero of this historical fantasy novel is a castrato singer, and the book brings up fascinating questions about gender identity and prejudice. | 2016-09-09 09:28:58 | |
| Foz Meadows | An Accident of Stars | Angry Robot Books | 2016-09-09 08:50:13 | ||
| Beth Cato | Breath of Earth | Harper Voyager (August 23, 2016) | amazon.com/gp/product/0062422065/ref=as_… | 2016-09-08 16:02:36 | |
| T. Frohock | Los Nefilim | Harper Voyager Impulse | This book collects Frohock's three novellas into a cohesive, tense work set in 1931 Spain where angels and demons war, with humans snared in the middle. The protagonist, Diago, is gay and his relationship with Miquel is beautifully and realistically portrayed. | 2016-09-08 11:54:15 | |
| Jim Cronin | Hegira | Solstice Publishing | Maripa is the powerful, deadly personal assistant / bodyguard of Karm, a being from the future. She is tasked with helping Karm save the entire Brin species from destruction when their star erupts into a supernova. Maripa's skills allow her to infiltrate high security complexes, defeat opponents in hand-to-hand combat, and regularly rout anyone in the traditionally male-dominated game of Rings. While she is the sole female among the three main protagonists, she proves to be their equal in all respects, and is essential to the success of their mission.amazon.com/hegira-jim-cronin-ebook/dp/b0… | 2016-09-06 08:32:18 | |
| Nino Cipri | Opals and Clay | Podcastle | podcastle.org/2016/02/08/podcastle-402-a… | 2016-09-02 13:25:49 | |
| Nathan Adler | Wrist | Kegedonce Press | Check out a Character called "Inri" in this novel kegedonce.com/bookstore/item/73-wrist.ht… | 2016-09-02 11:25:50 | |
| thingswithwings | Known Associates | Archive of Our Own | Fanfiction in the Marvel Cinematic Universearchiveofourown.org/works/6292210/chapte… | 2016-09-01 03:02:57 | |
| Rachael K. Jones | Love Letters on the Nightmare Sea | Flash Fiction Online | A lesbian couple is trapped in a sea of nightmares. Both gender-flipping and dealing with the tropes of damsels-in-distress, consent and love letters, this flash story covers immense ground. Both beautiful and powerful, the main character finds her own path to loving and being loved.flashfictiononline.com/main/article/love… | 2016-08-31 12:38:44 | |
| Maria Turtschaninoff | Maresi | Pushkin Press | US edition will be published in 2017. Original edition published in Finland in Swedish in 2014. Translated from the original Swedish by Annie Prime. (Finland is a bilingual country with a small Swedish speaking minority.) | 2016-08-31 11:40:08 | |
| S. B. Divya | Runtime | Tor | amazon.com/runtime-s-b-divya-ebook/dp/b0… | 2016-08-30 15:31:25 | |
| Michael Thomas Ford | Lily | Lethe Press | LILY is the story of a girl who wakes up one day to find she's been gifted/cursed with the ability to tell how others will die simply by touching them. Sold by her mother to a traveling carnival/tent revival to work as a sideshow attraction, Lily attempts to rid herself of her curse, only to come to understand that it's the result of her awakening sexuality and queerness and should be embraced as something remarkable. lethepressbooks.com/store/p400/lily%2c_d… | 2016-08-30 08:19:21 | |
| Porpentine Heartscape | With Those We Love Alive | Self-published | Dreamlike/nightmarish transgirl lesbian romance. Make things for the empress. Wander streets; stare at distant moth fliers; apply various glyphs to body. Observe horrific events. At certain points, you are asked to draw on your body how certain passages make you feel. Hazy and pretty and sad. We don't have many stories like this written for us.slimedaughter.com/games/twine/wtwla/ | 2016-08-29 03:19:20 | |
| Porpentine Heartscape | Vesp: A History of Sapphic Scaphism | Vice | Porpentine Heartscape's work is at the very bleeding edge of science fiction and narrative fiction writ large. Vesp is about weaponized intimacy, the neoliberal commons and the profound inhumanity of futurity in the present. Gender and its contingencies in her hands become instruments of interruptive possibility and implements which sever the trapped, crushed limb of womanhood from the supremacist imagination. motherboard.vice.com/read/wasp | 2016-08-29 02:58:17 | |
| R. Cooper | A Little Familiar | Self-Published | 2016-08-22 22:51:23 | ||
| Margarita Tenser | Chosen | Vitality Magazine | A short, cute story about a goddess coming to summon a girl to follow a sacred feminine destiny... only he goes by Johnny now and has no interest in any destiny. Messes with a lot of traditional fantasy tropes and a very fun read.readvitality.com/december-issue-is-out/ | 2016-08-22 22:33:37 | |
| Jasinta Langer | The Captain, the Librarian, and the Paradox | Vitality Magazine | A sci-fi, time travel story featuring several nonbinary characters and a f/f couple where one of the women is bisexual. It hints at the nature of gender in alien races, robotic races, and how time travel messes with gender as well. readvitality.com/final-issue/ | 2016-08-22 22:29:26 | |
| Sylvia Kelso | Riversend | Wildside Press | wildsidepress.com/riversend-by-sylvia-ke… | 2016-08-21 22:59:01 | |
| Seth Dickinson | The Traitor Baru Cormorant | Tor | 2016-08-20 08:44:48 | ||
| Ciara Ballintyne | In the Company of the Dead | Evolved Publishing | An epic fantasy exploring feminist issues through a female protagonist who holds a unique but isolating position of power in her society.evolvedpub.com/books/in-the-company-of-t… | 2016-08-17 21:05:55 | |
| A. Merc Rustad | The Gentleman of Chaos | Apex Magazine | apex-magazine.com/the-gentleman-of-chaos… | 2016-08-17 17:06:55 | |
| Colson Whitehead | The Underground Railroad | Doubleday | 2016-08-15 21:51:51 | ||
| Johanna SinisaloLola Rogers (translator) | The Core of the Sun | Grove/Black Cat | Based partly on H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale, this is a deeply layered and highly satirical read of patriarchy, the gendered future of genetic engineering, and Finnish-style welfare statism in the age of capitalist utilitarianism. Where it looks simplistic, push further until you see the wicked humor and biting criticism. | 2016-08-15 15:52:32 | |
| Anna-Marie McLemore | When the Moon was Ours | 2016-08-15 07:19:20 | |||
| Danielle Dutton | Margaret the First | Catapult | 2016-08-14 18:56:26 | ||
| Samantha Hunt | Mr. Splitfoot | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 2016-08-14 18:52:08 | ||
| Sarah Blackman | Hex | Fiction Collective 2 | 2016-08-14 18:49:14 | ||
| Alexis A. Hunter | Your Body, By Default | Fireside Fiction | A short story about a woman soldier resurrected in a male body.firesidefiction.com/issue35/chapter/your… | 2016-08-14 17:53:54 | |
| Becky Chambers | A Close and Common Orbit | 2016-08-14 17:53:18 | |||
| S. Qiouyi Lu | Her Scared Spirit Soars | Strange Horizons | strangehorizons.com/2016/20160718/1lusac… | 2016-08-14 17:50:59 | |
| Michell Baker | Fire in the Haze | Beneath Ceaseless Skies | beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/fire… | 2016-08-14 17:47:47 | |
| Sarah McCarry | About a Girl | St. Martin's Griffin | 2016-08-14 17:37:58 | ||
| Hanna-Pirita Lehkonen | Immortal Nerd | LINE webtoon | A quirky, diverse sci-fi comedy that is serialized weekly on LINE webtoon.webtoons.com/en/comedy/immortal-nerd/lis… | 2016-08-12 08:18:38 | |
| Ariella North | Always Human | Line Webtoon | A heart-warming romance set in a future where bioaugmentation has changed the way society functions. It's a digitally published multimedia comic serialized weekly on LINE webtoon. Season 1 - the equivalent of the first book - has been completed. I'm not sure if you take webcomics as submissions for this award, but I've noticed that there are both comics and digitally published novels in the list of submissions, so I hope you will consider it.webtoons.com/en/romance/always-human/lis… | 2016-08-12 08:16:03 | |
| Jo Walton | Necessity | Tor | 2016-08-10 13:31:44 | ||
| Django Wexler | The Guns of Empire | Roc (Penguin) | 2016-08-10 13:05:28 | ||
| Rebecca Fraimow | Further Arguments in Support of Yudah Cohen's Proposal to Bluma Zilberman | Diabolical Plots | diabolicalplots.com/fiction-15/ | 2016-08-10 13:04:30 | |
| Mark von Schlegell | Sundogz | The MIT Press | We would be happy to mail a physical copy of the book to an address if provided. mitpress.mit.edu/books/sundogz | 2016-08-10 10:04:46 | |
| Blue Dellaquanti | O Human Star | ISBN 9780990995609 I absolutely loved this graphic novel about robots, trans identity, queerness, and relationships. | 2016-08-09 21:06:41 | ||
| Suzanne Feldman | Absalom's Daughters | MacMillan | 2016-08-08 19:59:46 | ||
| Charlotte Wood | The Natural Way of Things | Europa Editions | 2016-08-08 19:58:04 | ||
| Rachael K. Jones | The Night Bazaar for Women Becoming Reptiles | Beneath Ceaseless Skies | beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-… | 2016-07-28 16:44:45 | |
| Lesley L. Smith | The Quantum Cop | Quarky Media | The story of a female quantum physicist who uses her unique scientific expertise to fight crime and save the universe! Physics, and elementary particle physics in particular, is one of the last bastions of male dominance; this novel thwarts such sexist expectations. :) | 2016-07-19 11:03:54 | |
| Popcorn Taylor | Dream Snatcher | Tasty Titles | This book fools the reader as it is an easy and quick read - however, the messages are extremely dark and I think, quite accurate. Male in control over female, beyond just erotica...complete masculine indulgence. Book has a fitting twist at end though.amazon.com/dream-snatcher-popcorn-taylor… | 2016-07-19 10:43:01 | |
| Jaimie Engle | Dreadlands: Wolf Moon | JME Books | This book explores Viking era Canada where a matriarchal werewolf tribe gains control of the realm. In a society where women are equals with men, the novel highlights history, fantasy, and struggles for equality between races and genders.jmebooks.com | 2016-07-06 07:00:29 | |
| Cecil Wilde | Gunrunners | Self-published | This is a short story about two trans people who are assassins-for-hire(ish). It's a sweet, sad short that leaves readers a little hopeful, and a little sad.gumroad.com/l/tnue | 2016-07-05 20:51:46 | |
| Roseanne Cheng | Edge the Bare Garden | Wise Ink Creative Publishing | Edge the Bare Garden tackles the subject of digital citizenship and cyberbullying in schools through the eyes of a nameless, genderless narrator. Because of this, the reader has two experiences while reading: firstly their visceral reactions to the cyberbullying that takes place in the story, and secondly their realization that they have made assumptions about the gender of the narrator based on the details provided (and not provided). This book opens up discussions about gender expectations and our responsibilities to each other as human beings. amazon.com/edge-bare-garden-roseanne-che… | 2016-06-30 15:14:13 | |
| Aliya Whiteley | The Arrival Of Missives | Unsung Stories | This book follows The Beauty (shortlisted in 2014), and whilst less overtly discomforting for readers is just as challenging regarding gender roles. The particular strength of it to my mind is the narrator, Shirley, who is perfectly pitched on the cusp of adulthood - prone to petulance, but also precocious and bold, her response to a world not ready for her is the fascinating core of the story. How she comes to understand love, her ambition and the likelihood of being able to fulfil that ambition hopefully appeals to your jury.unsungstories.co.uk/the-arrival-of-missi… | 2016-06-30 03:23:08 | |
| Sam Miller | Things With Beards | Clarkesworld | clarkesworldmagazine.com/miller_06_16/ | 2016-06-29 05:52:10 | |
| Lois McMaster Bujold | Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen | Baen Books | Most of the gender exploration is in the area of gendered and nongendered reproduction, what could be done with gametes from two people of one biological sex to create heterozygous children. Unexplored, and very interesting, territory. | 2016-06-22 14:36:09 | |
| M Thomas Gammarino | King of the Worlds | Chin Music Press | Dylan had always wanted to live as many lives as he could—that was the appeal of being an actor. But Dylan loses the lead in Titanic and exiles himself and his wife to a recently settled exoplanet called New Taiwan where the native Terrans' heteronormative standards are inversed, with biological males presenting as female and vice versa. Dylan sets off to recapture his past as he tries to balance a transdimensional midlife crisis against family life. mthomasgammarino.com/king-of-the-worlds | 2016-06-21 12:32:54 | |
| K. Eason | Enemy | 47North | amazon.com/enemy-bones-gods-k-eason/dp/1… | 2016-06-21 11:01:57 | |
| Red Harvey | The Dark | Wattpad | Three retail workers are confronted with Death on a path to cementing their identities. Two of the women are drawn to each other, but are forced apart because of a forbidding political landscape. Everyone meets their end, but ultimately, Death plays a part in shaping who they become.wattpad.com/story/19546801-the-dark | 2016-06-20 20:17:31 | |
| Betsy James | Roadsouls | Aqueduct | totally blows away a common criticism of fantasy world being monolythic--including some interesting looks at gender | 2016-06-20 17:38:37 | |
| Emma Rios | I.D. | Image Comics | Explores body identity, including trans-identity. | 2016-06-14 12:27:09 | |
| Ellen KushnerAlaya Dawn JohnsonMalinda LoJoel DerfnerRacheline MaltesePatty BryantPaul Witcover | Tremontaine | SerialBox | serialbox.com/serials/556fb8faada6e270f8… | 2016-06-14 12:23:02 | |
| Heather Rose Jones | The Mystic Marriage | Bella Books | Swashbuckling Regency period adventure, with magic. Follow-up to Daughter of Mystery. | 2016-06-07 08:47:13 | |
| Heather Rose Jones | Daughter of Mystery | Bella Books | Swashbuckling Regency period adventure, with magic. Surviving - and succeeding - in 19th century Europe as a woman - and a lesbian. | 2016-06-07 08:43:38 | |
| Bonnie Stufflebeam | Strange Monsters | Easy Brew Studio | Strange Monsters: A Music & Words Collaboration is a unique hybrid of audiobook anthology and music CD. The tales meld elements of surreal fantasy and fearful suspense. Strange Monsters is music-storytelling fusion experience like no other. kickstarter.com/projects/stufflebeam/str… | 2016-06-06 19:22:16 | |
| Megan Milks | Kill Marguerite and Other Stories | Emergency Press | Genderqueer girl stories of the most awesome kind, taking the basic narrative of boys, youth, sex and identity, scrambling them with influences (pop music, porn, sexual fantasy, teen magazines and books, video games), and then destroying them in gory pornographic explosions. amazon.com/marguerite-other-stories-mega… | 2016-06-01 05:27:06 | |
| Indra Das | The Devourers | Del Rey | One of the most startlingly, disturbingly, hauntingly gorgeous werewolf stories I have ever read. A historian in Kolkata is given an old journal to transcribe from a stranger, a journal of moving and visceral histories written in and on the skins of the shifters who wore and tore them in the 17th Century. Each moment contains such an incredible depth of embodied mythology that you can almost taste the years and lives stretching back and back from every scene, and the gendered ramifications of their existence have strange and brutal effects. One of the most striking and memorable novels I have come across in some time. | 2016-05-14 08:30:45 | |
| Tetsu'Go'Ru Tsu'Te | Dadr'Ba | Ah'Ma'Go Publishing, Honolulu HI | This work explores life aboard a Generation Star-ship crewed by ageless Gene-Locked-Clones that come into existence without a gender and must choose by age 25, whether they want to be male, female or U'Ne meaning neither. amazon.com/dadrba-tetsugoru-tsute/dp/098… | 2016-05-13 19:59:58 | |
| Joel Cornah | The Sea-Stone Sword | Kristell Ink, Grimbold Books | Joel Cornah is a young, debut author whose novel gently explores sexuality and a need for acceptance in his main character, Rob Sardan. The strongest character, a mute female called Eimir, shows that strength and courage come in all shapes and sizes.amazon.co.uk/sea-stone-sword-joel-cornah… | 2016-05-13 05:45:58 | |
| Louise Katz | The Orchid Nursery | Lacuna Publishing | This is an entertaining, thoughtful, and risky speculative novel that envisages a dystopia ruled by fundamentalists. Following in the tradition of Atwood and Carter, it explores the lives of three women who have been effected by the regime. Told in three different voices and experimenting with language in a manner that is not only political but wonderfully humorous, this intelligent work deserves critical recognition and a wide readership. | 2016-05-12 15:11:54 | |
| Jennifer Mason-Black | Devil and the Bluebird | Amulet Books | 2016-05-12 11:32:59 | ||
| Seanan McGuire | Every Heart a Doorway | Tor | 2016-05-12 11:28:18 | ||
| L.S. Johnson | Rare Birds, 1959 | C is for Chimera | 2016-05-06 06:57:17 | ||
| Jessy Randall | There Was an Old Woman | Unicorn Press | unicorn-press.org/books/randall-there-wa… | 2016-04-27 05:48:49 | |
| KJ Kabza | This Is a Letter to My Son | Strange Horizons | When being a woman is all you want, would you still go for it if it meant you'd die?strangehorizons.com/2016/20160411/kabzal… | 2016-04-18 22:56:50 | |
| Charlie Jane Anders | All the Birds in the Sky | Tor | 2016-04-16 13:30:33 | ||
| J Lily Corbie | Like Dolls | PseudoPod | pseudopod.org/2016/02/26/pseudopod-479-a… | 2016-04-14 19:07:27 | |
| Lena Coakley | Cold Spots | PseudoPod | pseudopod.org/2016/01/01/pseudopod-471-f… | 2016-04-14 19:06:23 | |
| N. V. Winnick | Doc | PseudoPod | Listening to the notes around this story about gender and identity and transition really drive the impact home.pseudopod.org/2015/12/07/pseudopod-467-d… | 2016-04-14 19:05:17 | |
| Jessica May Lin | Red Mask | Shimmer | shimmerzine.com/red-mask-by-jessica-may-… | 2016-04-14 11:57:44 | |
| Pear Nuallak | Candidate 45, Pensri Suesat | Unlikely Story | unlikely-story.com/stories/candidate-45-… | 2016-04-14 11:55:50 | |
| Cat Parra (ed.)Zorra Gilbert (ed.) | Dates! An Anthology of Queer Historical Fiction | Margins Publishing | A comics anthology exploring gender and sexuality. | 2016-04-14 11:51:46 | |
| Krista Hoeppner Leahy | The Hexagonal Bolero of Honeybees | Clarkesworld | clarkesworldmagazine.com/leahy_11_15/ | 2016-04-12 06:07:18 | |
| Christopher Ritchie | The Ordinary | GB Publishing.org | 2015 IndieFab Book of the Year Award Finalist. Allegory-laden horror satire potraying a world like ours that graphically exposes minors to depraved material. Stanley, one of the ordinary, is so evil his touch alone freezes girls’ minds with fear; caught up in porn, in their teens, he captures and keeps them as trophies. While, 'the ordinary' feed from humanity’s rot intent on bringing about the next phase for the human race. Amid this dark descent humanity's fight for survival, as with retired policeman Rob, his son Jez and girlfriend Maria, seems doomed by its own dark, arrogant dehumanizing of women.gbpublishing.net/#!c-ritchie/c1qij | 2016-04-10 00:37:18 | |
| D. J. Goodman | The Void | Severed Press | amazon.com/void-d-j-goodman-ebook/dp/b01… | 2016-04-09 18:43:40 | |
| Mishell Baker | Borderline | Saga Press | 2016-04-04 17:19:28 | ||
| A.E. Marling | Dark Lord's Wedding | Dark Lord's Wedding explores gender in a setting of fantasy. One illusionist changes shape to flaunt gender fluidity. Gender identity is further portrayed as independent of sexuality: an enchantress has an asexual awakening. Later, she must convince an ally to accept trans women as part of the plot. To achieve ultimate victory, she joins forces with an agender venom master and a man polymorphed into a female jaguar who still identifies as masculine.smashwords.com/books/view/622709 | 2016-04-04 15:04:15 | ||
| Joanne HallRoz Clarke | Fight Like A Girl | Kristell Ink | The Fight Like a Girl Anthology, edited by Hall and Clarke, represents a refreshing and unique female perspective in the SFF environment. Stories are from a cross section of fantasy and science fiction where the primary focus is not upon their gender or their origins, but the viewpoint and motivations of the characters within their worlds and how they deal with them. kristell-ink.com | 2016-04-02 04:08:11 | |
| James L. Wolf | The Artifact of Foex | Fantastic Fiction Publishing | This fantasy work explores a world of "The Flame" a group of people devoted to a goddess whose grants them three important powers: 1) reincarnation, 2) past life memories, and 3) shape-shifting. The three aspects make for people who can change the sex of their body at will to match the gender or genders they want/feel. Their long memories and multiple lives gives the Flame a unique perspective on their world. fantasticfictionpublishing.com/product/t… | 2016-04-01 13:48:12 | |
| Ada Palmer | Too Like the Lightning | Tor Books | 2016-03-31 16:49:58 | ||
| Derek E Pearson | Body Holiday - A Time To Prey | GB Publishing.org | "A gripping read that boldly and intelligently explores the vision of an ugly, amoral future. Milla's crusade has a biblical qaulity in which she is elevated as a force of hope against the corporate anti-Christ of the Body Holiday Foundation. Killers have fan clubs, while the only individuals who count for something are those with money. There is blood, sweat, panic, rage and fear! Can Milla's telepathic powers win her the fight of her life?" Surrey Lifegbpublishing.net/#!body-holiday-trilogy-… | 2016-03-24 06:10:31 | |
| Derek E Pearson | Soul's Asylum | GB Publishing.org | "A great read ****" The Sun gbpublishing.net/#!soul-s-asylum-trilogy… | 2016-03-24 05:59:40 | |
| Kelly Johnson | Skies Over Tomorrow: Constellation | Chaos Studio Seven | Science fiction collection with the theme of Mars as the future superpower. Six short stories range from hard sci-fi to fantasy. Each is its own tale, and together they showcase life under the rule of the Red Planet in an astute and entertaining read. Moreover, as parables, this title is a reflection on today's social paradigm, especially with women being in leadership roles.chaosstudio7.com/sotc | 2016-03-21 16:52:54 | |
| Sofia Samatar | The Winged Histories | Small Beer Press | goodreads.com/book/show/25330014-the-win… | 2016-03-21 11:12:48 | |
| Kim Iverson Headlee | King Arthur's Sister in Washington's Court | Lucky Bat Books | Morgan le Fay quests to waylay the Boss before he can go back in time to destroy her world, but her spell misses by 300 miles and 200 years, landing her in the Washington, D.C., of 2079. Whatever is a queen of magic & minions to do? Offers laughs, love, and a candid look at American society, popular culture, politics, baseball... and the human heart.amazon.com/dp/b00mrn8xl6 | 2016-03-09 17:50:23 | |
| Livia Llewellyn | Furnace | Word Horde | A stunning collection of short fantastic fiction, dealing in themes of sexuality and horror, often comingled. Includes one original story, "In the Court of King Cupressaceae, 1982."wordhorde.com/books/furnace/ | 2016-03-08 22:44:44 | |
| D. J. McPhee | Waycaller | Amazon Kindle | Waycaller has very strong gender diversity. It's a nod to Tolkien but it isn't an all white, straight male cast of characters. It's very well written.amazon.com/waycaller-episode-out-dark-ch… | 2016-03-07 20:53:25 | |
| Catherynne Valente | The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All The Way Home | Feiwel and Friends | This is the final book in a 5-book series following the adventures of girl named September in Fairyland with various fairy creatures. It's is a whimsical, magical fairy tale that is an excellent adventure story for both girls and boys. | 2016-03-04 12:02:44 | |
| Alan Joshua | The SHIVA Syndrome | Champagne Publishing | amazon.com/the-shiva-syndrome-alan-joshu… | 2016-03-02 10:15:21 | |
| K.M. SZPARA | Nothing is Pixels Here | Lightspeed: The Queers Destroy Science Fiction! Special Issue | lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/nothing-i… | 2016-02-22 08:16:56 | |
| Kameron Hurley | Empire Ascendant | Angry Robot | Second book of the "Worldbreaker Saga". In these works, women hold posts of power more often than men, and lineage is often through the matriarchal line. The dynamics of gender "non-issues" are wonderfully intrinsic to Kameron Hurley's world, and make for very powerful writing.kameronhurley.com/worldbreaker-saga/ | 2016-02-19 09:15:24 | |
| Benjanun Sriduangkaew | That Which Stands Tends Toward Free Fall | Clarkesworld | features a nearly all-woman cast, and most relevant, features an AI which self-determines her own gender. While other AIs identify as gender neutral, the AI in question, Phiksunee, identifies immediately as "she", which colors deeply how she imprints, who she imprints on, and the how the story unfolds.clarkesworldmagazine.com/sriduangkaew_02… | 2016-02-17 13:14:17 | |
| Kenneth Schneyer | The Plausibility of Dragons | Lightspeed | Short story featuring a Moorish scholar from Cordoba and a female Alsatian knight who set out in search of a dragon and the knight's sword sisters.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-plaus… | 2016-02-09 10:05:18 | |
| Sam Farren | Dragonoak: the Sky Beneath the Sun | Amazon kindle direct publishing | Second book in a fantasy series, with fantastic LGBT characters, particularly women and non binary individuals, as well as disability and mental illness. The world itself is largely free from the gender and sexuality based discrimination of our own but deals with themes of prejudice and acceptance through the fantastic aspects of the character's identities. Demonstrates how stories about women can deal with darkness and trauma without resorting to plots about sexual violence. Deserves a wider audience than it currently has! | 2016-02-03 03:54:47 | |
| A.C. Wise | The Ultra Fabulous Glitter Squadron Saves the World Again | Lethe Press | A collection of inter-linked short stories featuring trans women and cis women kicking ass and saving the world from supernatural threats. The stories also touch on themes of gender identity and friendship. | 2016-02-01 12:14:09 | |
| Laurie Penny | The House of Surrender | A utopian exploration of rape culturefreitag.de/autoren/der-freitag/the-house… | 2016-01-30 12:10:21 | ||
| Liz Grzyb | Hear Me Roar | Ticonderoga Publications | Anthology of 16 tales of real women in unreal worlds edited by Liz Grzyb. | 2016-01-30 00:57:29 | |
| Meadows Foz | Coral Bones | Abaddon Books | Novella about identity and gender fluidity centered on Miranda from The Tempest, who struggles to find her place after leaving her island. | 2016-01-20 17:51:38 | |
| Meadows FozJonathan BarnesEmma NewmanKate HeartfieldAdrian Tchaikovsky | Monstrous Little Voices: New Tales from Shakespeare's Fantasy World | Abaddon Books | 2016-01-20 17:49:14 | ||
| Olga WerbyChristopher Werby | Suddenly, Paris (Many Worlds, One Life Book 1) | Amazon Digital Services, Inc. | This is a science fiction coming of age story. A young San Francisco high school student learns of her past and falls in love. "Your heart always recognizes the one you love... even when appearances are deceptive."amazon.com/suddenly-paris-many-worlds-li… | 2016-01-20 13:40:14 | |
| Lindsay Ribar | The Art of Wishing series | Penguin Young Readers | 2016-01-19 10:11:16 | ||
| Kate Elliott | The Beatriceid | Book Smugglers Publishing | A stunning new short story, written in verse, set in Kate Elliott’s Spiritwalker Universe Set before the start of Cold Magic, The Beatriceid is a brand new, standalone short story written in Iambic Pentameter that reimagines The Aeneid in a feminist, Phonecian light. | 2016-01-14 08:14:41 | |
| Lorraine Schein | The Lady Anarchist Cafe | Whippleshield Books (UK) - Ian Shields, Publisher | Short story about a feminist anarchist colony founded on Venus by Earth's women anarchists. From the anthology Aphrodite Terra: Stories about the Planet Venus.amazon.com/aphrodite-terra-stories-about… | 2016-01-07 14:36:10 | |
| Jo Walton | The Philosopher Kings | Tor | Smart and very funny “thought experiment” on what happened when Athene decided Plato's Republic needed to be real. | 2015-12-17 06:55:55 |