Joanna Russ Biography

Joanna Russ was born February 22, 1937 in New York City. There, she attended Cornell University, studied under Vladimir Nabokov, and graduated in 1957 with an English degree (Joanna Russ (1937 - 2011)) (In Memoriam: Joanna Russ (1937-2011)). “She taught at various colleges and universities, including a long stint at the University of Washington in Seattle beginning in 1977, before moving to Tucson” (Joanna Russ (1937 - 2011)). Joanna Russ is a science fiction writer whose greatest work is “The Female Man,” published in 1975. She unfortunately perished April 29th, 2011 after suffering health problems such as back pain and chronic fatigue since the late 80’s (Joanna Russ (1937 - 2011)). Joanna Russ has produced many stories and won many awards for them, and we will …show more content…
In addition, she has reviewed books for The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy and received a Pilgrim Award in 1988. She published her first science fiction story, “Nor Custom Stale,” in 1959. Her first novel was titled “Picnic on Paradise” which was published in 1968. Russ’s most famous work is “The Female Man,” a work that received a retro-Tiptree award and became inducted into the Gaylactic Spectrum Hall of Fame. Some of her other work has received awards, such as a Nebula award for “When It Changed” and a Hugo award for “Souls.” Not only has Joanna Russ written science fiction, she also has written some works of non-fiction primarily on the topics of women in writing, one such title being “How to Suppress Women’s Writing” (In Memoriam: Joanna Russ (1937-2011)). Another field of fiction Joanna Russ has been involved in is the realm of slash fiction. In 1985, she wrote “Pornography By Women For Women, With Love,” which has set the standards when it comes to discussing what fantasy means. Russ argues that fantasy is more than wish fulfillment and that slash reveals new things about women’s sexuality (Francis and Piepmeier