Becca Anderson, author of The Book of Awesome Women, has written a new blog post about Malka Older and her life as a science fiction writer and academic.
Malka Older is a science fiction writer as well as an academic who also works in humanitarian aid and development, responding to natural disasters and other emergencies in such places as Darfur, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Japan, and Mali. She earned a BA in literature from Harvard and then a master’s degree in international relations and economics from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and as of this writing, she is currently a doctoral candidate. She has also conducted research on the human and organizational factors involved in the response to the catastrophic failure of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant following an earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011.
After entering the field of speculative fiction with her short story “Tear Tracks” (2015), Older’s first novel, the political science fiction thriller Infomocracy, was named one of the best books of 2016 by the Kirkus Review. The full Centenal Cycle trilogy, including Infomocracy’s two sequels, Null States and State Tectonics, was nominated for a Hugo Award. The trilogy posits the dissolution of nation-states into “centenals,” affinity groups with approximately 100,000 people in each, though as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that this system has not eliminated political infighting. Her first short story collection, And Other Disasters published in November 2019. She is also the creator of Ninth Step Station, a cyberpunk crime drama serial set in Tokyo.
The book of awesome women writers
Medieval Mystics, Pioneering Poets, Fierce Feminists and First Ladies of Literature (Feminist Book, Gift for Women, Gift for Writers)
This one-of-a-kind tome takes a tour with Sylvia Beach and other booksellers as well as librarians, editors, writers, bibliophiles, and celebrated book clubs. Join women’s studies scholar Anders as she takes you on a ribald ride through the pages of history. Chapter titles include “Prolific Pens” (including Joyce Carol Oates, author of over 100 books), “Mystics, Memoirists and Madwomen”, “Salons and Neosalons”, “Ink in Their Veins” (literary dynasties), and the titillating “Banned, Blacklisted, and Arrested.”