This recurring feature will focus on important stuff in the SF Universe that has Alamo City roots. We’ll give you the rundown on authors who were born or lived here, works that germinated in our city or just plain cool ideas that took hold here.
For the first installment, let’s talk about one of those cool ideas: FEMSPEC.
Femspec is a feminist academic journal specializing in speculative fiction, including sf/f/h. The first issue came out in 1999 under the editorial direction of founder Batya Weinbaum, and it’s still publishing critical essays, fiction, poetry and art that examine gender issues.
Turns out the journal’s birthplace was right here in 1997, when San Antonio was host to the World Science Fiction Convention. According to the journal’s history page:
“The editorial group of Femspec grew as an outgrowth of the Science Fiction/Fantasy Area of the American/Popular Culture Association. We came together at a conference in San Antonio in April 1997, discussed our experiences of non-feminist editorial practices by SF journals that were male-dominated, and the bias towards realism in journals that published feminist literary criticism or creative works. A group of us decided to found our own journal, the first issue of which appeared in September 1999; in the process of which, our organization grew.”
So, now you know. We’ll keep you posted as we find more sf/f/h goodies with San Antonio ties.
That is really cool that something that has been needed for a long time was born here in San Antonio. There is a lot of sf that comes from the female perspective that is either reviewed through a male point of view, or is overlooked. There ARE other female authors other than Anne Rice. Sheesh!. Kudos to FEMSPEC for helping to bring out the other gender’s voice in a male dominated sf world.