A collection of resources about Joanna Russ and her work.
No section of this page is comprehensive; these are all partial selections. If you have suggestions for things to add, drop a note to the maintainer of this page, Jed Hartman.
Starting points
Some suggestions for starting points for reading Russ, by Jed Hartman.
Works about Russ and her work
Books
- Partial Visions: Feminism and Utopianism in the 1970s, by Angelika Bammer
- Discusses multiple feminist utopias; includes discussion of The Female Man. (1991)
- Considering The Female Man by Joanna Russ, or, As the Bear Swore, by Farah Mendlesohn
- “This exploration of The Female Man offers a close reading of the text, focussing on how the book works, its structures, arguments, humour, and brilliant anger.” (Forthcoming in 2026.)
- On Joanna Russ, ed. Farah Mendlesohn
- “The essays in this volume examine every aspect of Russ's body of work and provide a critical assessment that is long overdue. […] Contributors include: Andrew M. Butler, Brian Charles Clark, Samuel R. Delany, Edward James , Sandra Lindow, Keridwen Luis, Paul March-Russell, Helen Merrick, Dianne Newell, Graham Sleight, Jenéa Tallentire, Jason Vest, Sherryl Vint, Pat Wheeler, Tess Williams, Gary K. Wolfe, and Lisa Yaszek.” (2009)
- Joanna Russ, by Gwyneth Jones
- “Award-winning author and critic Gwyneth Jones offers a new appraisal of Russ's work and ideas.” (2019)
- Demand My Writing: Joanna Russ, Feminism, Science Fiction, by Jeanne Cortiel
- “In this major study of the work of Joanna Russ, Jeanne Cortiel gives a clear introduction to the major feminist issues relevant to Russ’s work and assesses its development.” (1999)
- We Wuz Pushed: On Joanna Russ and Radical Truth-Telling, by Lee Mandelo
- “‘To speak radical truths—unapologetically, ferociously, rudely when necessary—is the central purpose of Joanna Russ's influential body of work,’ declares Lee Mandelo in [his] essay on Russ's radical, groundbreaking literary and critical work.” (2012)
- Demand the Impossible: Science Fiction and the Utopian Imagination, by Tom Moylan.
- Discusses multiple utopias; includes discussion of The Female Man. (1986)
Articles and blog posts about Russ and her work
- “Unnatural Acts: American Feminism and Joanna Russ’s The Female Man,” by Amanda Boulter
- Published in Women: A Cultural Review 10, pp. 151–166. (1999)
- “Joanna Russ: Sword & Sorcery Pioneer?”, by Catherine Lundoff
- Published in New Edge Sword & Sorcery Issue #5. (2025)
- “‘Textual Politics’: The Uses of the Imagination in Joanna Russ’ The Female Man,” by Catherine McClenahan
- Published in Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters 70, pp. 114–125. (1982)
- “Determinate Politics of Indeterminacy: Reading Joanna Russ's Recent Work In Light of Her Early Short Fiction,” by Jeanne Cortiel
- Published in Future Females, the Next Generation: Feminist Science Fiction’s New Voices and Velocities, ed. Marleen Barr, pp. 219–236. (2000)
- “The Poetry of Joanna Russ,” Part I and Part II, by Lee Mandelo
- Published in Stone Telling. (2011 and 2012)
- “Reading Joanna Russ,” by Lee Mandelo
- A series of fifteen essays about Russ books, published in Reactor/Tor.com. (2011 and 2012)
- “‘It’s Not Shrill, It’s Ultrasonic’: Queer SF Pioneer Joanna Russ’s Feminist Awakening,” by Nicole Rudick
- “In January 1969, thirty-two-year-old Joanna Russ attended a four-day conference on ‘Women Today,’ held at Cornell University’s College of Human Ecology.” (2023)
- “Everything You Need to Know About Groundbreaking Queer Feminist Science Fiction Writer Joanna Russ”
- Jon Michaud interviews Nicole Rudick about Russ. (2023)
- “Alyx,” by Samuel R. Delany
- Originally published as the introduction to the first Alyx collection (1976); later reprinted in Delany’s essay collection The Jewel-Hinged Jaw: Notes on the Language of Science Fiction (1977).
- “The Order of ‘Chaos,’” by Samuel R. Delany
- This is a review of Russ’s novel And Chaos Died; it was published in Science Fiction Studies (1979) (First page preview). It may or may not be the same as Delany’s essay “Orders of Chaos: The Science Fiction of Joanna Russ,” which was published in Women Worldwalkers: New Dimensions of Science Fiction and Fantasy, ed. Jane B. Weedman (1985).
- “Russ,” by Samuel R. Delany
- Published in Delany’s essay collection Starboard Wine. (1984)
- “On (Not) Saving the World: Joanna Russ’s Extra(Ordinary) People,” by Steven Shaviro
- Published in Jewish Women Science Fiction Writers Create Future Females, ed. Marleen Barr, pp. 39–63. (2025)
Encyclopedia and wiki articles
- Russ, Joanna in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
- Joanna Russ in the Fanlore wiki
- Includes info about her Star Trek fandom.
- Joanna Russ in Wikipedia
Interviews and interactions with Russ
- Khatru 3 and 4 (1975), ed. Jeff Smith
- The “Women in Science Fiction” symposium, featuring discussions and arguments from Susy McKee Charnas, Samuel R. Delany, Virginia Kidd, Ursula K. Le Guin, Vonda N. McIntyre, Raylyn Moore, Joanna Russ, James Tiptree, Jr, Luise White, Kate Wilhelm, and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.
- Aurora Speculative Feminism, vol. 10, no. 1, Winter 1986-1987
- Includes Jeanne Gomoll’s “An Open Letter to Joanna Russ” (p. 7) (primarily about the erasure of women sf writers), and Russ’s response (p. 6, uncredited in the TOC). Also includes five reviews of Russ books.
- The Legendary Joanna Russ, Interviewed by Samuel R. Delany
- “What follows is excerpted from a telephone interview with Ms. Russ at WisCon 30, in May 2006.” This interview transcript was later reprinted in The WisCon Chronicles (Vol 1), ed. L. Timmel Duchamp.
- (A different transcript of the interview appeared as Joanna Russ Interview with Samuel Delany in the feministsf wiki.)
- Notable especially for the audience question “I was wondering if your opinions of transsexual women have changed since you wrote The Female Man” and Russ’s response: “Oh yes, oh yes, it's almost as if my life has arranged itself to disabuse me of one prejudice after another.”
Bibliographies of Russ’s work
- Joanna Russ at ISFDB
- The most comprehensive bibliographic resource for Russ’s published work.
- Joanna Russ published short fiction
- Most of the material in this sheet has been added to ISFDB, but not all of it. Other tabs in the spreadsheet list nonfiction as well as unpublished material.
University archives holding Russ’s papers
Including childhood writing and art, unpublished writing, drafts of some published works, correspondence, and more.
- Joanna Russ Papers at Bowling Green State University
- In Bowling Green, Ohio.
- Joanna Russ papers at University of Oregon
- In Eugene, Oregon.
- Correspondence between Delany and Russ at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
- In New Haven, Connecticut.