Perkin Warbeck the Second ([info]perkinwarbeck2) wrote,
@ 2007-04-12 10:13:00
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2006 Award-Nominated Books By Women
There has been a lot of fuss about the lack of female nominees for the Hugos. My feeling is that one out of five novel nominees is a perfectly normal ratio, and nobody would have mentioned it if it hadn't also been one out of twenty fiction nominees. (The Stoker and Prometheus shortlists are entirely male, and I didn't notice anyone commenting.)

However, people have been asking mostly what novels by women should have been nominated.

So, in the hope it might be useful, a list of books by women that have been nominated for other awards this year, with links to online reviews.

Alphabetical by author:

Broken Kelley Armstrong
Emerald City
Bookloons
Nominated: BFSA

Carnival Elizabeth Bear.
Green Man Review
SF Site
Nominated: Philip K. Dick Award (won Special Mention), Lamdha Award, Romantic Times Reader's Choice Award (SF), Locus.

One Chrysanthemum Joan Itoh Burke
Nominated: Sunburst "Honourable Mention"

Ilario: The Lion's Eye Mary Gentle
Strange Horizons
SF Site
Nominated: BFSA

Mindscape Andrea Hairston.
Strange Horizons
Nominated: Philip K. Dick Award, Tiptree Honor.

Catalyst Nina Kirriki Hoffman.
Green Man Review
Strange Horizons
Nominated: Philip K. Dick Award.

Half Life Shelley Jackson
Washington Post
Co-Winner: Tiptree Award

Powers Lynn Jacobs
Nominated: Sunburst "Honourable Mention".

Rainbow Bridge Gwyneth Jones
Strange Horizons
SF Site
Nominated: BFSA

The Privilege of the Sword Ellen Kushner.
Strange Horizons
Green Man Review
Nominated: Nebula, Tiptree Honor, Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award (Fantasy: Winner), Locus (Fantasy: Winner), BFSA.

Keturah and Lord Death Martine Leavitt
Nominated: Sunburst

Eastern Tide Juliet E. McKenna
Diverse Books
Nominated: BFSA

Solstice Wood Patricia A. McKillip
Bookslut
NESFA
Nominated: Mythopoeic

The Droughtlanders Carrie Mac
Nominated: Sunburst

Oh Pure and Radiant Heart Lydia Millet
Park Road Books.
Noe Valley Voice
Nominated: Clarke Award

Spin Control Chris Moriarty
SF Site
Strange Horizons
Winner: Philip K. Dick Award (Thanks [info]coalescent!)

Hav Jan Morris
Guardian
Strange Horizons
Nominated: Clarke Award

The Necessary Beggar Susan Palwick
SF Review
Emerald City
Nominated: Mythopoeic

The Burning Girl Holly Phillips
Strange Horizons
Emerald City
Nominated: BFSA

Breeding Ground Sarah Pinborough
Nominated: BFSA

Dry Barbara Sapergia
Nominated: John W. Campbell Memorial Award.

Keeping It Real: Quantum Gravity 1 Justina Robson
Infinity Plus
Emerald City
Nominated: BFSA

Living Next Door to the God of Love Justina Robson.
Guardian
SF Site
Nominated: Philip K. Dick Award, John W. Campbell Memorial Award.

Cathrynne M. Valente The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden.
Green Man Review
SF Site
Co-winner: Tiptree Award.

Farthing Jo Walton
Green Man Review
SF Site Review
Nominated: Nebula, Romantic Times Reader's Choice Award (SF: Winner), Sidewise, Locus, John W. Campbell Memorial, Quill, Sunburst "Honourable Mention".

Darkland Liz Williams
Strange Horizons
Guardian
Nominated: BSFA Award

The Demon And The City: A Detective Inspector Chen Novel Liz Williams
Bookslut
Emerald City
Nominated: BFSA

Thanks to Locus Online and Google! I've probably missed loads of things, and I know if leaves out excellent books that haven't been nominated for anything, like Cherryh's Pretender and Sherwood Smith's Inda.

ETA: Sidewise, Locus, John W. Campbell Memorial, Quill, Sunburst, BFSA, Mythopoeic

ETA2: Note about reviews -- I have tried to link to two reviews from what I personally consider reputable and independent sources. If there are no reviews linked it's either because I couldn't find any or the book is of a genre (horror, YA) where I don't know the online sources well enough to know what's a real review and what's a puff piece.

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[info]coalescent
2007-04-12 02:57 pm UTC (link)
Great idea. Just wanted to point out that Strange Horizons has also reviewed Farthing, In The Night Garden, Living Next-Door to the God of Love and Oh Pure and Radiant Heart. And Carnival was also covered in the Dick award overview you link (picked as the winner in fact), though I hope to have a full review of the book sometime soonish. You also missed Chris Moriarty's Spin Control, which won the Dick, and M. Rickert's Map of Dreams, which is a collection that won the Crawford Award for best first fantasy book (other nominees include In the Forest of Forgetting by Theodora Goss and, of course, His Majesty's Dragon).

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[info]perkinwarbeck2
2007-04-12 03:04 pm UTC (link)
Thank you.

I stopped looking once I had two reviews for things, but the more the better.

I didn't know Chris Moriarty was female! I'll add that in now. But I deliberately left out the collections, on the grounds that they're not novels.

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[info]coalescent
2007-04-12 03:18 pm UTC (link)
I didn't know Chris Moriarty was female!

She does a good job of not advertising it -- reviews occasionally say things like "in her debut novel", but her website doesn't give the game away (although you might start to wonder after reading this, I guess).

But I deliberately left out the collections, on the grounds that they're not novels.

Fair enough -- your post said books rather than novels, so I wasn't sure. And the Rickert really is awesome.

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[info]splinister
2007-04-12 03:23 pm UTC (link)
I'm interested that everyone is focusing on the novel category - as you'll remember from my post I think that a 1 in 5 nomination in novel category for the Hugo is acceptable - not great, however. It's the lack of nominations in the short fiction field that I find appalling. 0/15 - that's just awful.

Regarding the Stokers - I suspect people still consider horror primarily a man's field more than sf, which is completely wrong if one follows the genre and notes how many women are publishing horror (especially in all the sub-genres).

However, let's look at the Stoker four fiction categories: Out of 19 nominees, four of them were women (none in the best novel category, but 2/4 in the first novel category). Lisa Morton won the best short fiction for "Tested". Out of the four winners, one was a woman. The Stokers are more representative of its field than the Hugos.

That's a great list of fine novels you've put together. I haven't read them all (too little time, damnit), but I hope to seek them out eventually.

The Philip K Dick Award this year had a stonking 5 women nominees out of 7, and Chris Moriarty nabbed it. From my sketchy research I believe that's the first time in the history of any genre award that women dominated the nominations. It's nice to see for a change.

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[info]ellen_kushner
2007-04-14 06:45 pm UTC (link)
a 1 in 5 nomination in novel category for the Hugo is acceptable - not great, however. It's the lack of nominations in the short fiction field that I find appalling.

I agree. It just seems statistically, well, improbable, given the richness of short fiction that's out there.

Thanks for rounding up all these fine novels, though!

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[info]shsilver
2007-04-12 09:07 pm UTC (link)
Links are broken. Need an http:// before the URL.

We'll be announcing the Sidewise Award nominees in the next week, which will add another data point for you.

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[info]perkinwarbeck2
2007-04-13 10:41 am UTC (link)
Thank you. I think I've fixed that now.

I'll add them in when you announce them, assuming some are female, and shall try to avoid the temptation to try to guess what they are in advance.

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[info]helen_keeble
2007-04-12 09:20 pm UTC (link)
This is really interesting, and a very useful data point in the ongoing discussions. Thanks for compiling it!

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[info]calico_reaction
2007-04-13 12:47 pm UTC (link)
Greetings!

I think a better question, at least for me, is what short stories/novolettes/novellas by women should have been nominated. If it'd been one woman per category, I don't think I would've personally noticed. Like you said, it's the one out of 20 that really screams at people.

But all good suggestions for novels. :)

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[info]coalescent
2007-04-13 12:53 pm UTC (link)
The Locus Recommended Reading list is probably a place to start for that, although it's surely not the end; it lists 4 novellas, 13 novelettes, and 16 short stories by women.

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[info]calico_reaction
2007-04-13 01:25 pm UTC (link)
No argument there. I personally know of a few stories I'd switch out, but I think it's interesting that most everyone is up in arms about the novels, when really, we should be looking at every category, you know? I know short stories aren't exactly the popular market, but the readers are out there.

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[info]perkinwarbeck2
2007-04-13 05:18 pm UTC (link)
I absolutely agree, and I've been saying this all over the place.

I thought about doing a post like this for short fiction, but I started with the Nebulas, and I saw than nearly all the Nebula short fiction was actually dated 2005 -- I do know how this works, but that doesn't stop it being stupid -- and gave up.

I'll see about trying again though. The Locus Recommended List is a good idea. The actual Locus shortlist will probably be out soon, too -- I noticed yesterday they were saying "only a short time left to vote."

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[info]perkinwarbeck2
2007-04-13 06:13 pm UTC (link)
OK, I have now done this.

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