A landmark book in the fields of science fiction and feminism. Four women living in parallel worlds, each with a different gender landscape. When they begin to travel to each other's worlds each woman's preconceptions on gender and what it means to be a woman are challenged. Acclaimed as one of the essential works of science fiction and an influence on William Gibson, THE FEMALE MAN takes a look at gender roles in society and remains a work of great power.

Joanna. Jeannine. Janet. Jael. Four women, four worlds, four vastly different societies. When these women are suddenly able to communicate with each other through the boundaries of dimensions, they are confronted with what could have been if one thing changed in history. And they find themselves looking at their own worlds with new eyes. Acclaimed as one of the essential works of science fiction, The Female Man examines gender roles in society and remains a work of great power. It won a retrospective James Tiptree Jr. Award and a 2002 Gaylactic Spectrum Hall of Fame award. 'A stunning book, a work to be read with great respect. It's also screamingly funny' - San Francisco Review of Books 'She was brilliant in a way that couldn't be denied'- The New Yorker 'It's a gorgeous book, frankly, and well worth any reader's time' - Tor.com Welcome to The Best Of The Masterworks: a selection of the finest in science fiction

Are women able to achieve anything they set their minds to? In How to Suppress Women's Writing, award-winning novelist and scholar Joanna Russ lays bare the subtle-and not so subtle-strategies that society uses to ignore, condemn, or belittle women who produce literature. As relevant today as when it was first published in 1983, this book has motivated generations of readers with its powerful feminist critique. "What is it going to take to break apart these rigidities? Russ's book is a formidable attempt. It is angry without being self-righteous, it is thorough without being exhausting, and it is serious without being devoid of a sense of humor. But it was published over thirty years ago, in 1983, and there's not an enormous difference between the world she describes and the world we inhabit." -Jessa Crispin, from the foreword "A book of the most profound and original clarity. Like all clear-sighted people who look and see what has been much mystified and much lied about, Russ is quite excitingly subversive. The study of literature should never be the same again." -Marge Piercy "Joanna Russ is a brilliant writer, a writer of real moral passion and high wit." -Adrienne Rich

"To Write Like a Woman is a rare example of a feminist tackling science fictuion using postmodern theory, which makes for a much more sophisticated and nuanced appraisal than the usual fare." Passion

"Russ essays are witty and insightful. An excellent book for any writer or reader." Feminist Bookstore News

"In her new book of essays... Russ continues to debunk and demand, edify and entertain.... Appreciative of surface aesthetics, she continually delves deeper than most critics, yet in terms so simple and accessible that her essays read like lively, angry, humorous dialogues conducted face-to-face with the author. Russ is the antithesis of the distant critic in her ivory tower." Paul Di Filippo, The Washington Post Book World

..". 20 years of the author s feisty reports from the front lines of literature." The San Francisco Review of Books

"This is a book of imaginative and provoking essays, but you should read it for the sheer fun of it." The Women s Review of Books

"Collects more than two decades of criticism by Joanna Russ, one of the most perceptive, forthright and eloquent feminist commentators around." Feminist Bookstore News

..". a super book....This is a book that, for once, really will appeal to readers of all kinds." Utopian Studies

"If you enjoy science fiction, this is definitely a book that you ll want to talk about. I found myself sneaking a few pages at times when I really didn t have time to read." Jan Catano, Atlantis

Classic essays on science fiction and feminism by Nebula and Hugo award-winning Joanna Russ. Here she ranges from a consideration of the aesthetic of science fiction to a reading of the lesbian identity of Willa Cather. To Write Like a Woman includes essays on horror stories and the supernatural, feminist utopias, popular literature for women (the "modern gothic"), and the feminist education of graduate students in English."

In 1959, at the age of 22, Joanna Russ published her first science fiction story, "Nor Custom Stale," in "The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy," In the forty-five years since, Russ has continued to write some of the most popular, creative, and important novels and stories in science fiction. She was a central figure, along with contemporaries Ursula K. Le Guin and James Tiptree, in revolutionizing science fiction in the 1960s and 1970s, and her 1970 novel, "The Female Man," is widely regarded as one of the most successful and influential depictions of a feminist utopia in the entire genre.
"The Country You Have Never Seen" gathers Joanna Russ's most important essays and reviews, revealing the vital part she played over the years in the never-ending conversation among writers and fans about the roles, boundaries, and potential of science fiction. Spanning her entire career, the collection shines a light on Russ's role in the development of new wave science fiction and feminist science fiction, while at the same time providing fascinating insight into her own development as a writer.

Living in an altered past that never saw the end of the Great Depression, Jeannine, a librarian, is waiting to be married. Joanna lives in a different version of reality: she's a 1970s feminist trying to succeed in a man's world. Janet is from Whileaway, a utopian earth where only women exist. And Jael is a warrior with steel teeth and catlike retractable claws, from an earth with separate-and warring-female and male societies. When these four women meet, the results are startling, outrageous, and subversive.

A multi-dimensional explosion hurls the starship's few passengers across the galaxies and onto an uncharted barren tundra. With no technical skills and scant supplies, the survivors face a bleak end in an alien world. One brave woman holds the daring answer, but it is the most desperate one possible.
Elegant and electric, We Who Are About To... brings us face to face with our basic assumptions about our will to live. While most of the stranded tourists decide to defy the odds and insist on colonizing the planet and creating life, the narrator decides to practice the art of dying. When she is threatened with compulsory reproduction, she defends herself with lethal force. Originally published in 1977, this is one of the most subtle, complex, and exciting science fiction novels ever written about the attempt to survive a hostile alien environment. It is characteristic of Russ's genius that such a readable novel is also one of her most intellectually intricate.

Penguin reissues a work of classic science fiction from the revolutionary author of The Female Man - with a new introduction by Hari Kunzru An explosion in space, a starship stranded at the end of the universe, a group of strangers alone in a barren, alien wilderness. Facing almost certain death, the human survivors of a deep-space crash are determined to ignore the odds and colonize an inhospitable planet, recreating a civilization like the one they have lost forever. Only one woman rejects this path, choosing instead a daring and desperate alternative: to practice the art of dying. But her fellow passengers require her reproductive skills for their survival plan, and they are prepared to impose their regime by force if necessary... Joanna Russ offers an electrifying, original and challenging exploration of individual freedom, power, and our most primitive will to live. We Who Are About To is part of the Penguin Worlds classic science fiction series