Women Write Fantasy (The Giant 'Women in Fantasy' Database)

[WPaladin]

This is a pretty awesome worksheet.  I think it will inspire several of the your writers I know.  I noticed two female indie authors I have been following not on it though, is it possible to get them added to the list?

[ThiefofHope]

I don't care what gender the author is as long as the story hooks me in.

Maybe some readers don't try female fantasy authors is that there might associate them with books like Paranormal romance

I can't tell you how many people assume I'm writing YA, Paranormal Romance, or Urban Fantasy if they find out I'm female. It's annoying. I'm thinking about querying under a male name because of it.

I've actually had someone tell me I shouldn't write in the genre I write in because it's not "womanly"--despite the fact that all five of my current point-of view characters are female. I don't get it. Someone online has also said to me, "Women write YA, men write lit". ¯\_(?)_/¯

I just tell them, "If you don't like it, don't read it."

[eclipse]

Maybe the next generation of boys and girls who grow up with Harry Potter will be more open to books written by female authors. And to fantasy!

[S. K. Inkslinger]

I don't care what gender the author is as long as the story hooks me in.

Maybe some readers don't try female fantasy authors is that there might associate them with books like Paranormal romance

I can't tell you how many people assume I'm writing YA, Paranormal Romance, or Urban Fantasy if they find out I'm female. It's annoying. I'm thinking about querying under a male name because of it.

I've actually had someone tell me I shouldn't write in the genre I write in because it's not "womanly"--despite the fact that all five of my current point-of view characters are female. I don't get it. Someone online has also said to me, "Women write YA, men write lit". ¯\_(?)_/¯

I just tell them, "If you don't like it, don't read it."

Thumbs up to you @ThiefofHope. People shouldn't be assigned gender roles, or any other forms of roles/ discriminations, as long as you can do the job and carry it out properly. I'm not a woman, but I'm also tired of stereotypes and the discrimination in our current society. As long as one can do a job perfectly, who cares if they are male, female, of this religion, that ethnicity, LGBTQ or whatever? If you are better than the person next to you, you wholly deserved what you had right now. People should be free to do whatever is in their skills and passions, and our society should start caring less about whichever hole we crawled out off.

Alright, rant over.  Now as long as that you didn't need to directly depend on those who discriminate/ judges you, feel free to go ahead and tell them, "Sod off!" (pardon for the vulgarity, some people deserved it) 

[AmeliaFaulkner]

Maybe the next generation of boys and girls who grow up with Harry Potter will be more open to books written by female authors. And to fantasy!

This is actually my big hope. A recent UK survey has shown that Generation Z are considerably less hung up on gender and sexuality than even us Gen X'ers, with over a third of them giving zero poops about whether someone identifies as male or female.

[Alex]

I don't care what gender the author is as long as the story hooks me in.

Maybe some readers don't try female fantasy authors is that there might associate them with books like Paranormal romance

I can't tell you how many people assume I'm writing YA, Paranormal Romance, or Urban Fantasy if they find out I'm female. It's annoying. I'm thinking about querying under a male name because of it.

I've actually had someone tell me I shouldn't write in the genre I write in because it's not "womanly"--despite the fact that all five of my current point-of view characters are female. I don't get it. Someone online has also said to me, "Women write YA, men write lit". ¯\_(?)_/¯

I just tell them, "If you don't like it, don't read it."

Old thread but that's disgusting! Names like Ursula LeGuin, Patricia McKillip, Margaret Weis, and Anne McCaffrey come to mind for female Fantasy authors who have been around a long time! I don't think anyone would call their books 'Romance' or relegate them all to 'YA'.

[J.R. Darewood]

Yeah I can't believe anyone would say that.  It's too bigotted for me to even process (but he does sound like a lit-snob so there's that).

I'd add Margaret Atwood, NK Jemisin, Robin Hobb,

Males make up like 75-80% of all writers period, I think. This was the most interesting article I've read on the topic AND it has data, which is too often missing from the discussion:

https://pudding.cool/2017/06/best-sellers/

[Rostum]

Maybe the next generation of boys and girls who grow up with Harry Potter will be more open to books written by female authors. And to fantasy!

There is this idea that female authors are somehow ignored by both male and female readers and that the industry is against them. The same industry that pretty much everyone you want working on your book is female through to the big booksellers who tend to keep a token male around (for the heavy lifting?) No evidence has yet been presented to demonstrate this bias in the many times this has come up on the forum. I cannot explain why with notable exceptions there are fewer successful female authors, please enlighten me.

I probably read more male authors than female looking at my shelves but not by that much (and weighted by SF)  Entertain me and I buy your books regardless of your sex.

[isos81]

Agreed, entertainment is the key, not the sex.

[AuthorKimMalaj]

I would love to be added to this list. I have published Castle of Teskom, Book One of the Ember in Time series. Urban Fantasy with mix of historical fiction, magic, parallel dimensions and mythology all merged into one series. My next release date is still pending but shooting for May 2021. Cheers to be part of an amazing group of writers and readers.

[ScarletBea]

Hi Kim, unfortunately the person who created the list originally is not longer in the forums, so we can't really update the list.

I just hope that as people come around, they read the rest of the posts and find your books (and maybe others). In fact, I think I'll make a note of that on the first post, I think I can modify it.