The purpose of the Feminist Science Fiction, Fantasy and Utopia Listservs is summarized by their creator, Laura Quilter, as follows: "Interested in talking to other people about the works of Ursula Le Guin, Marge Piercy, Suzy McKee Charnas, Elisabeth Vonarburg, Joanna Russ, and many others? Want to find out more about these authors, and other writers like them? The Feminist Science Fiction, Fantasy & Utopia ListServs are spaces for discussion of this literature." In practice, discussion has expanded to include movies and television as well as the treatment of women in SF works not considered feminist (i.e. Dune, The Lord of the Rings). The several hundred members of each list hail from several different countries and include some published authors as well as a majority of unpublished fans; the discussion is wide-ranging, spirited, and literate. And yes, there are some men.

I was a member of the original FemSF list from its early days until June 1999, when I became too fed up with what I considered a fairly hostile takeover by non-feminists. At that point I decided to focus my attention entirely upon the FemSF-Lit list, which had been created in April 1999 as a moderated forum for "on topic" discussions that would not stray from the subject of feminist science fiction, as the other list frequently had. I spend a fair amount of my free time reading messages, writing messages and reading books suggested by list members. In short, it's my favorite internet activity.

I've compiled these archives for anyone who is curious about my hobby. There are seven archives so far. Clicking on the link that says "Go to the Top of the Archive" will, logically enough, load the archive and position your browser window at the top of the document. Clicking an individual post title will also load the entire archive but will take you directly to the top of that post. Repeated titles indicate additional material on the same topic. The term "BDG" in a title indicates that the posting was part of the organized monthly Book Discussion Group. Eventually I would like to add hypertext links where appropriate, but for now the messages remain essentially as they appeared when I posted them.