When Mary Shelley published Frankenstein she launched a new genre of literature that blurred the boundaries of the possible, and women have remained key influencers shaping the contours of speculative fiction. Join this group to discuss how feminist perspectives reveal the seen and unseen while blending reality into surreality. Known and celebrated for their literary craft, we’ll also explore how these foundational authors use elements of story to convey social criticism and their techniques for making the fantastic believable.
Texts:
Kindred by Octavia Butler
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Ethicist, poet, and speculative fiction writer E. F. Schraeder is the author of two poetry chapbooks, most recently Chapter Eleven (Partisan Press). Schraeder’s work has appeared in Birthing Monsters, Terror Politico, Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, Mystery Weekly Magazine, The Feminist Wire, and other journals and anthologies.