Over at SF Signal, their latest Mind Meld feature looks at women in science fiction, with a long comment thread. I get to rave about some of the contributors to The Apex Book of World SF and the (forthcoming) Apex Book of World SF 2:
If I look at the writers I’m excited about today, the ones working in short fiction or getting into novels, the ones in my two (to date) Apex Book of World SFanthologies, they’re people like Lauren Beukes, who picked up the Clarke Award recently for her novelZoo City; it’s Aliette de Bodard, who won the BSFA Award for short story, was up for a Nebula and is still up for a Hugo; it’s Kaaron Warren, who just has this very weird mind… all three happen to be with Angry Robot (also my publishers for the Bookman books), but that just shows we may have similar editorial tastes! AR are also bringing out debut novelist Anne Lyle soon, which is very exciting.
The second Apex Book of World SF volume opens with a writer I’m very excited about (can you tell there’s a recurrent theme here??) – Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, with “Alternate Girl’s Expatriate Life”, fromInterzone. I think she’s a wonderful writer and I know she’s working on a novel, and I can’t wait to see it!
And we have, for instance, Joyce Chng from Singapore, who recently released a novel, A Wolf at the Door (as by J. Damask) – werewolves in Singapore! Who could resist that?
And we have Silvia Moreno-Garcia, who is working on a couple of very exciting novels, writes wonderful stuff. Shweta Narayan, who was up for a Nebula recently. Ekaterina Sedia, who is just such a great writer – you have to read A Secret History of Moscow! And I just love her short stories. We were lucky to get a story from Nnedi Okorafor, who is incredible. Or Gail Har’even, a highly regarded Israeli author who does both mainstream and SF (the story we reprint is from the New Yorker). We have original stories from Anabel Enriquez Piñeiro from Cuba, and Csilla Kleinheincz from Hungary.
So, you know, do we want to talk about women writers? Well, obviously I do! They’re such a vital and vibrant part of the field that I see – and this is just talking international stuff, you know.
Check it out. Comment if so inclined.
The best comment quote so far comes from “Chad”. Thought I’d share it!
It’s not projection. It’s anger. It’s being tired of being told you are evil, a racist and a sexist since you were born, because you are a white male. That you should provide every advantage possible to everyone else, even though you have never conciously discriminated against anyone. That you are constantly being told that every negative thing that happens to everyone else is either racist or sexist. You get tired of hearing the boy cry wolf so much that you struggle to listen to legit issues anymore.
The World SF Blog 
I would despair, but I’m past the outrage stage by now (just sort of wearily resigned to the appalling reactions of some people)…
(and yes, Rochita is awesome :))
A lot of those names are familiar from GUD!