I’m an unapologetic feminist writer of speculative fiction.
When I first read The Handmaid’s Tale in the 1980’s, it was very much an impossible fiction. Then, when I re-read it in the mid-2010’s, it made me cry because it had become a very possible version of reality. Globally, women and other minorities are having their hard won rights stripped away. Even supposedly democratic countries, like Aotearoa New Zealand, are systematically dismantling our legal rights. In countries ruled by conservative, religious-fascists, it’s even more horrifying.
Modern feminist speculative fiction requires more than passing the Bechdel test. It’s also more than just confronting the patriarchy and challenging misogyny. Over my lifetime, feminist speculative fiction has progressed from the comparative binary of dystopias and role-reversed separatist utopias, to intersectional fiction that considers race, gender, class, disability, sexuality, colonial history and ageism.
In much of my recent writing, I’ve combined that intersectionality with the concept of a separatist utopia. This comes from my belief that women/minorities need to save ourselves before we save the world, and we can’t do that when we’re in imminent danger.
In my stories, much like women preferring to meet a bear in the woods, my female characters often prefer to engage with the unknown of a cyborg, an alien or a monster than with human men who have demonstrated only violence, oppression and discrimination.
Literature, in the right hands, can be subversive—if it wasn’t there would be no calls for so-called ‘dangerous’ books to be banned. Through stories we can: create templates for rebellion, resistance & disruption; offer up cautionary tales; and, interrogate reality through metaphor—where rage and trauma are magic, ‘others’ are monsters, history is reclaimed & fates rewritten through time travel. Authors of feminist speculative fiction, are perfectly placed to offer hope and alternatives in the guise of fiction. Where speculative fiction asks, “what if?” feminist speculative fiction adds, “Why not?”
If you’re interested in reading my published feminist works, check out:
In Remains to be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa, my short story Fires of Fate is retribution horror, where men are punished for their environmental damage.
In Byline: An anthology of poetry and prose from Tauranga Writers my poems, Her Husband (2023) and A Year of Death (2024), both deal with retribution for domestic abuse.
In my short story collection Letters from Elsewhere:
A Letter From Elsewhere: a street kid taken by aliens, prefers to die, the only human on a distant planet, than return home. The letter she sends home is described as fake by the new Christo-fascist regime.
The Abyss: retribution horror for rape.
Star Killer: where taxidermy becomes retribution for rape.
Redundant: retribution horror, where the spider/wasp is a metaphor for exploited women.
Some fantastic feminist speculative fiction that I’ve read:
The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvanna Headley. Retelling of Beowulf where Grendel’s mother is a returned servicewoman whose child is the product of rape from when she was held captive. She chooses a solitary life on a mountain until the small town kills her son. Blurs the line between literary and genre fiction.
The Stanger by Kathryn Hore. Feminist western set in an apocalyptic future. A walled off town, run by men, is steeped in lies maintained by fear. A woman rides into town, challenges the town’s view of the outside world and the patriarchy.
Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Galley. Another feminist western set in an apocalyptic future. Queer librarian spies spread resistance propaganda under threat of death by bandits and fascists.
The Binti Trilogy by Nnedi Orokafor. A young woman escapes family expectations to attend university on another planet. Attacked en-route, she saves herself, by assimilating with the attackers, further ‘othering’ herself.
Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy Snyder. A cosmic, plague horror told from the point of view of three women whose lives intersect in ways they don’t understand. Highlights gaslighting, violence against women and medical abuse (inserting IUD w/o pain relief).
When I first read The Handmaid’s Tale in the 1980’s, it was very much an impossible fiction. Then, when I re-read it in the mid-2010’s, it made me cry because it had become a very possible version of reality. Globally, women and other minorities are having their hard won rights stripped away. Even supposedly democratic countries, like Aotearoa New Zealand, are systematically dismantling our legal rights. In countries ruled by conservative, religious-fascists, it’s even more horrifying.
Modern feminist speculative fiction requires more than passing the Bechdel test. It’s also more than just confronting the patriarchy and challenging misogyny. Over my lifetime, feminist speculative fiction has progressed from the comparative binary of dystopias and role-reversed separatist utopias, to intersectional fiction that considers race, gender, class, disability, sexuality, colonial history and ageism.
In much of my recent writing, I’ve combined that intersectionality with the concept of a separatist utopia. This comes from my belief that women/minorities need to save ourselves before we save the world, and we can’t do that when we’re in imminent danger.
In my stories, much like women preferring to meet a bear in the woods, my female characters often prefer to engage with the unknown of a cyborg, an alien or a monster than with human men who have demonstrated only violence, oppression and discrimination.
Literature, in the right hands, can be subversive—if it wasn’t there would be no calls for so-called ‘dangerous’ books to be banned. Through stories we can: create templates for rebellion, resistance & disruption; offer up cautionary tales; and, interrogate reality through metaphor—where rage and trauma are magic, ‘others’ are monsters, history is reclaimed & fates rewritten through time travel. Authors of feminist speculative fiction, are perfectly placed to offer hope and alternatives in the guise of fiction. Where speculative fiction asks, “what if?” feminist speculative fiction adds, “Why not?”
If you’re interested in reading my published feminist works, check out:
In Remains to be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa, my short story Fires of Fate is retribution horror, where men are punished for their environmental damage.
In Byline: An anthology of poetry and prose from Tauranga Writers my poems, Her Husband (2023) and A Year of Death (2024), both deal with retribution for domestic abuse.
In my short story collection Letters from Elsewhere:
A Letter From Elsewhere: a street kid taken by aliens, prefers to die, the only human on a distant planet, than return home. The letter she sends home is described as fake by the new Christo-fascist regime.
The Abyss: retribution horror for rape.
Star Killer: where taxidermy becomes retribution for rape.
Redundant: retribution horror, where the spider/wasp is a metaphor for exploited women.
Some fantastic feminist speculative fiction that I’ve read:
The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvanna Headley. Retelling of Beowulf where Grendel’s mother is a returned servicewoman whose child is the product of rape from when she was held captive. She chooses a solitary life on a mountain until the small town kills her son. Blurs the line between literary and genre fiction.
The Stanger by Kathryn Hore. Feminist western set in an apocalyptic future. A walled off town, run by men, is steeped in lies maintained by fear. A woman rides into town, challenges the town’s view of the outside world and the patriarchy.
Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Galley. Another feminist western set in an apocalyptic future. Queer librarian spies spread resistance propaganda under threat of death by bandits and fascists.
The Binti Trilogy by Nnedi Orokafor. A young woman escapes family expectations to attend university on another planet. Attacked en-route, she saves herself, by assimilating with the attackers, further ‘othering’ herself.
Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy Snyder. A cosmic, plague horror told from the point of view of three women whose lives intersect in ways they don’t understand. Highlights gaslighting, violence against women and medical abuse (inserting IUD w/o pain relief).
RSS Feed