Women In SF Panel At Blackwells This Week

An event this coming Thursday at the Charing Cross bookstore will discuss the role and influence of female SF authors

In partnership with Jo Fletcher Books , Blackwell’s on London's Charing Cross road will be hosting a female science fiction writers' panel on Thursday 8 May. The authors attending are Stephanie Saulter, Karen Lord, Naomi Foyle, Jaine Fenn and Janet Edwards. Edward James will moderate the panel. The six authors will be discussing the debate surrounding the representation of female authors in genre fiction, answering questions such as: why is there a lack of published female SF authors? And what solutions could be implemented to ensure equality in the future? The event will also host the launch of a display of books promoting female authors in SF and fantasy.

Karen Lord is the author of the multi-award-winning novel, Redemption In Indigo , and she has the first book of her new trilogy coming out in May, called The Best Of All Possible Worlds . Naomi Foyle has written the books Seoul Survivors and Astra . Stephanie Saulter is the author of Gemsigns and the sequel Binary . Janet Edwards penned YA novels Earth Girl and Earth Star , which are the first two books of a trilogy. The final book, Earth Flight , will be published this August. Jaine Fenn has written several books, the latest in the Hidden Empire series being Queen Of Nowhere . (You may recognise many of these names from their contributions to, or interviews in, SFX recently.) Meanwhile Edward James is a retired professor of medieval history, who has written or edited a number of books on the genre, including A Short History Of Fantasy and The Cambridge Companion To Science Fiction .

This coincides with 2014 as The Year Of Reading Women , a campaign started by author Joanna Walsh to get more people looking at books by female authors.

The event takes place on Thursday 8 May. There is no entry fee, but spaces are limited. If you want to book a place visit the Eventbrite website .

Abby Newton