Flying Cups and Saucers
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Gender Explorations in Science Fiction and FantasyAnthology edited by Debbie Notkin and the Secret Feminist Cabal. |
"These stories are beautiful and thought-provoking. They make you laugh and help you to understand the world better; what more could you ask of literature?"
-- Kim Stanley Robinson, Author of Antarctica and the Mars trilogy
Ever wonder what happened to the rest of the tea party when the saucers went off into space? Here's your chance to find out! What would it be like to go to a club where you could buy an injection of sexiness? To grow up in a world where you didn't know what gender you would be until puberty -- and the discovery could be painful? To find yourself and your secret pitted against the entire United States government?
The James Tiptree, Jr. Award has been recognizing science fiction and fantasy novels and stories that explore and expand gender for the past six years. Although the award itself is given to one or two works of fiction a year, each jury also produces a "short list" of notable works that were considered for the award.
This first anthology contains almost all of the short fiction that has either won or been short-listed in the first five years of the award. Contributors include Ursula K. LeGuin (who has won twice, for "A Matter of Seggri" and "Forgiveness Day"), Eleanor Arnason, L. Timmel Duchamp, Carol Emshwiller, Kelly Eskridge, Graham Joyce and Peter F. Hamilton, R. Garcia y Robertson, Delia Sherman, and more.
Order Your Copy
We are down to our last few copies of the paperback of Flying Cups and Saucers, so order now if you want to be sure to get your copy.
The price is $18 plus postage and handling ($2.50 within the U.S. and Canada, $5.00 overseas sea mail, and $20 overseas air mail). Send your check or money order to:
The James Tiptree Literary Award680 66th Street
Oakland, CA 94609
USA
If you wish to pay by credit card, you can fax your credit card number to 1 510 595-9029.
Table of Contents
The story introductions aren't included in the book. This is the only place you can read them.
- Why Have a Tiptree Award? ,
- Introductory Essay
Shortlisted in 1995
, "And Salome Danced," - Even in this anthology devoted to the exploration and expansion of gender, many stories handle the basic issues of gender obliquely. But not all of them. There's nothing oblique about Kelley Eskridge's unforgettable story of the actress who played Salome ... and the other roles she can play when she chooses.
Shortlisted in 1994
, "The Lovers," - All those shelves and shelves of books about women and nary a word about men. They're the default "people" and all books are about them unless labeled otherwise. In other words, we generally don't look at the topic at all. Trust Eleanor Arnason, an early winners of the Tiptree Award for her extraordinary novel A Woman of the Iron People, to break that taboo. Here's a memorable love story that spends a good deal of its time in the vast unexplored territory of masculinity itself.
Shortlisted in 1993
, "Chemistry," - Here's a commonly asked question in the age of science: is it romantic mystery, or is it chemistry? Does the deep rich taste of chocolate turn your mind to thoughts of love-- or are you experiencing some abstruse scientific phenomenon called limerence? In a few short years, you might be able to go to a night club and buy an injection good for an evening's worth of romantic mystery. And then what?
Shortlisted in 1994
, "Forgiveness Day," - Girl meets boy: perhaps the oldest story of all. But if the "girl" is a bright young 25-year-old who knows more than she ever will again, and the "boy" was raised in one of the toughest disciplines of all the worlds of the Ekumen universe, and if everything in both of their cultures and all of their histories is working against them, anything could happen. Writers just don't come any better than Ursula Le Guin; enjoy yourself, as the oldest stories unfurl fresh new leaves in her hands.
Shortlisted in 1993
, "Some Strange Desire," - The vampire legend persists in infinite (and often tiny) variation, until you think you'll never read anything new that even reminds you of vampires. And then Ian McDonald's tesh come along and change your mind. This story won't go where you expect it to go; more important, it absolutely refuses to stay in comfortable territory.
Shortlisted in 1992
, "Venus Rising," - Forty years ago, in his classic story "Stranger Station," Damon Knight wrote, "When two alien cultures meet, the stronger must transform the weaker by love or hate." Whether or not Carol Emshwiller was thinking of that quotation, "Venus Rising" exemplifies it-- with a full understanding of how much of a two-way street that transformation can be.
Shortlisted in 1994
and , "Eat Reecebread," - It's a cop story. It's a fast-food satire. It's a love story. It's about persecuted minorities. But what is it doing in this anthology? Read on; you'll find out.
Shortlisted in 1993
, "Motherhood, Etc.," - It's 19-year-old Pat against the entire machinery of the U.S. government. Fortunately or unfortunately, her antagonists can't begin to understand just how angry she is ... nor have they begun to comprehend just how dangerous she can be. At the beginning of the story, neither has she.
Shortlisted in 1993
, "The Other Magpie," - Linguist Deborah Tannen has made a best-seller out of the problems of communication between men and women in one culture. It gets even tougher if the woman is from one culture and the man is from another. Now suppose the woman is not at all typical of the women she was brought up with. Throw in a few complications from the spirit world, and the results will surprise reader and characters alike.
Shortlisted in 1995
, "Food Man," - Anorexia and its companion bulimia are the common stuff of feature articles and TV movies-- because they affect a horrifying portion of the late 20th century's teenagers, mostly girls. In this tale of a young girl who hates to eat, Lisa Tuttle takes us into the mind of a contemporary teen, whose problems have a most unexpected solution.
Shortlisted in 1994
, "Young Woman in a Garden," - Theresa was researching her dissertation, studying a minor French artist who happened to be a distant relation. But there was more to his story than met the eye ....
Shortlisted in 1992
, "Grownups", - Every child wants to know what it's like to grow up. In this unique and terrifyingly imaginative story, Ian McLeod envisions a world where the answer to that question is far more complex-- and more frightening-- than the ones we learned, and the ones we expect our children to learn.
Co-winner in 1994
, "The Matter of Seggri," - One prime tenet of the Tiptree Award is that we haven't even begun to think of all the ways the two genders can interact. If Ursula Le Guin keeps writing stories like this one, however, other writers are really going to have to stretch. Let's just put it this way: On Seggri, only some men really like being assigned to the fuckeries.
- Appendix
- James Tiptree, Jr. Award winners and shortlists