Heiresses of Russ 2015: The Year's Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction
Stories about lesbians, women who choose women as primary partners, lovers, playmates, and co-conspirators, tend to go where few men have gone before. Most of the real-life issues that lesbians must deal with, as women and as members of non-mainstream communities, appear in these stories in metaphorical form or as plausible scenarios in a future or alternate world. Lesbianism itself was routinely described by the conservatives of the past as "impossible." The formula of "woman + woman" is thus logically connected with other phenomenon formerly considered impossible: magic, witchcraft, folk cures, scientific discoveries, alternate methods of producing offspring, space travel, communication with beings who are not human or not living in human bodies, historical accounts that have been suppressed or denied. The Heiresses of Russ series seeks to offer readers the best lesbian-themed speculative fictions stories published the prior year.
“Introduction” © 2015 Jean Roberta, original to this volume. •“The Highwayman Come Riding” © 2014 M. Bennardo, first appeared in Daily Science Fiction, October 3rd, 2014 • “Sarah’s Child” © 2014 Susan Jane Bigelow, first appeared in Strange Horizons, May 19, 2014 • “Tears of the Gods” © 2014 Sarah L. Byrne, first appeared in The Future Fire #31 • “Morrigan in the Sunglare” © 2014 Seth Dickinson, first appeared inClarkesworld, March 2014 • “Seven Commentaries on an Imperfect Land” © 2014 Ruthanna Emrys, first appeared in Tor.com • “Cold Wind” © 2014 Nicola Griffith, first appeared in Tor.com • “Game Fae” © 2014 Vivien Jackson, first appeared inLike a Trip Through the Mirror (ed. by Kathleen Tudor, Circlet Press) • “Repair Mission” © 2014 Annabeth Leong, first appeared in Coming Together: Among the Stars (ed. by Lynn Townsend, Coming Together) • “Nkásht íí” © 2014 Darcie Little Badger, first appeared in Strange Horizons, December 15, 2014• “Knotting Grass, Holding Ring” © 2014 Ken Liu, first appeared in Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History (ed. by Rose Fox & Daniel Jose Older, Crossed Genres Publications) • “Because I Prayed This Word” © 2014 Alex Dally MacFarlane, first appeared in Strange Horizons, October 27, 2014 • “Spores” © 2014 Seanan McGuire, first appeared in The End is Nigh (ed. by John Joseph Adams, Broad Reach Publishing) • “Made Light” © 2014 Melissa Moorer, first appeared in The Future Fire #29 • “Real Monsters” © 2014 B R Sanders, first appeared in Cactus Heart#8 • “Final Escape” © 2014 Stacia Seaman, first appeared inMyth & Magic: Queer Fairy Tales (ed. by Radclyffe and Stacia Seaman, Bold Strokes Books) • “Golden Daughter, Stone Wife” © 2014 Benjanun Sriduangkaew, first appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #144 • “Skeletons” © 2014 Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, first appeared in Room, September 2014 • “Ghost-Writer” © 2014 Shannon Connor Winward, first appeared inScigentasy #8
About the Author
Steve Berman has published over a hundred articles, essays, and short fiction works. He has been a finalist for the Andre Norton Award, Lambda Literary Award, Golden Crown Literary Award, and Shirley Jackson Awards. He has edited more anthologies of queer speculative fiction than any other individual, alive or dead. He resides in southern New Jersey, where he runs Lethe Press, a small press that publishes books offering queer and weird adventures for readers of every gender and sexual identity.