75 Years: Joanna Russ and Julia Roberts
Alyx was born around 1967. She's smart, tough, and brave; she knows what she wants and goes after it. She is not beautiful. She doesn't angst, and she's not the secret heir to a kingdom, magical power, etc. She could never be an urban fantasy heroine. Her creator is Joanna Russ, who graduated from Cornell, got a master's degree from Yale, and went on to become a college professor and outspoken feminist writer. Niall Harrison has a smart write-up of the Alyx stories at Vector,though maybe he doesn't like "Bluestocking" as much as I do.
Russ is also the author of many other works, including this gem:
Which is smart and funny and invaluable, and should be on every writer's shelf. I thought about when I reading about "Eat, Pray, Love" which will be a Julia Roberts film this summer. Author Elizabeth Gilbert earned a lot of fans with that bestseller, but also vitriol - oh, such a hard life, getting a quarter million dollar advance to dump your husband and travel around the world. I may have been in that camp. But, as others pointed out, why not celebrate her great success in getting that advance? What's with the jealousy?
Gilbert herself gave a speech recently on TED about creativity, spirituality and mental health. She's well aware people expect her to fail from now on: "Everywhere I go now people treat me like I’m doomed."
Anyway, back to Russ. Her other works include "To Write Like a Woman: Essays in Feminism and Science Fiction." She's won a Nebula, Hugo and retroactive Tiptree award, and been nominated for more. I was delighted to be in the same table of contents with her for the first Tiptree anthology (which my high school students used to giggle about, since it has "Sex" in the subtitle.) Farah Mendlesohn wrote a book about her that was published just last year, and you can get many of her works online or down here in Florida at Chamblin's Bookmine.
Russ has not been awarded SFWA Author Emeritus or Grand Master. She's still with us, but ill and not publishing much.
Order a Joanna Russ book today, and meet Alyx!
This is part of the series Diana Comet Presents...75 Years of Fabulous Writers. Don't click until June 1st.
Now on Kindle: Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories. For a very low price! Perfect for reading on the plane to or from Wiscon.
(p.s. still jealous of Gilbert, though)
Russ is also the author of many other works, including this gem:
Which is smart and funny and invaluable, and should be on every writer's shelf. I thought about when I reading about "Eat, Pray, Love" which will be a Julia Roberts film this summer. Author Elizabeth Gilbert earned a lot of fans with that bestseller, but also vitriol - oh, such a hard life, getting a quarter million dollar advance to dump your husband and travel around the world. I may have been in that camp. But, as others pointed out, why not celebrate her great success in getting that advance? What's with the jealousy?
Gilbert herself gave a speech recently on TED about creativity, spirituality and mental health. She's well aware people expect her to fail from now on: "Everywhere I go now people treat me like I’m doomed."
Anyway, back to Russ. Her other works include "To Write Like a Woman: Essays in Feminism and Science Fiction." She's won a Nebula, Hugo and retroactive Tiptree award, and been nominated for more. I was delighted to be in the same table of contents with her for the first Tiptree anthology (which my high school students used to giggle about, since it has "Sex" in the subtitle.) Farah Mendlesohn wrote a book about her that was published just last year, and you can get many of her works online or down here in Florida at Chamblin's Bookmine.
Russ has not been awarded SFWA Author Emeritus or Grand Master. She's still with us, but ill and not publishing much.
Order a Joanna Russ book today, and meet Alyx!
This is part of the series Diana Comet Presents...75 Years of Fabulous Writers. Don't click until June 1st.
Now on Kindle: Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories. For a very low price! Perfect for reading on the plane to or from Wiscon.
(p.s. still jealous of Gilbert, though)