Female Fantasy Authors, November 2012

Alice Bradley Sheldon was the Kaiser Soze of her day. In 1968 she began publishing science fiction stories under the name James Tiptree, Jr. -- a pseudonym she would successfully hide behind for nine years until it would finally be discovered, somewhat shockingly, that she was a woman. Her stories are dark science fiction, teeming with sexual tensions, often pessimistic, and weighted with a feminist theme. Hidden in her work were the struggles of a woman suffering emotional troubles, and she would take her own life in 1987. An award in her name is presented each year to a work of science fiction or fantasy that expands/explores understanding of gender.