Author Joanna Russ died 29 April 2011, after suffering a series of strokes; she had been in hospice care toward the end. Born 22 February 1937 in New York City, she was an author of science fiction and fantasy that explored gender roles. Her best-known novel may be The Female Man (1975).
Russ graduated from Cornell in 1967, and received an MFA from the Yale Drama School in 1970. She went on to teach at several universities, and became a professor at the University of Washington.
Her first published fiction appears to be “Nor Custom Stale”, which appeared in the September 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and her first novel was And Chaos Died (1970). Russ was also a critic and reviewer: her first Books column in F&SF appeared in 1967.
The Female Man won a retro-Tiptree Award in 1996, and was named to the Gaylactic Spectrum Hall of Fame in 2002. Her 1972 short story “When It Changed” won the Nebula Award and a retro-Tiptree Award (in 1996). Her 1982 novella “Souls” won the Hugo Award and was nominated for a Nebula. In 1988, she won the Science Fiction Research Association’s Pilgrim Award for Lifetime Achievement in science fiction scholarship. Her fiction was nominated for another eight Nebula Awards and two Hugos.
Her papers are archived at the University of Oregon (see this page).