Farah Mendlesohn on the Cover of "Considering The Female Man by Joanna Russ" by Judith Clute

Farah Mendlesohn

Farah Mendlesohn's Considering The Female Man by Joanna Russ, or, As the Bear Swore, has an iconic cover: the artist is Judith Clute.

The book will be out March 31st, 2026, with a launch at Eastercon Iridescence, in Birmingham. You can pre-order now, paperback and ebook, in the Luna store and all other retailers.

Farah on the cover:

The cover art for this book is from the Women's Press edition of The Female Man, by London artist Judith Clute. This is the cover of the book I read when I was a teenager and it's the one I always think of.  Judith is now a very close friend. Samuel Delany's work was inspiring to teenage me, and so too was that of Sarah LeFanu, so I am particularly delighted to have quotes from both of them.

Farah on the book:

Joanna Russ’s writing career was relatively short, running from 1968 to 1987, with a number of essay collections published in the years after that. Her fiction career consists of just six novels and four collections, but each novel she published challenged engrained conventions of the genre.

The Female Man was received with shock, horror and vituperation when it was published in 1975. Its fractured narrative, and its direct attack on patriarchy and the straight-jacket of performative femininity, were described as shrill and man-hating. Over the years it emerged as a classic of feminist science fiction, a novel that continues to excite and resonate, and a touchstone for proudly militant feminists.

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.

About Farah:

Farah Mendlesohn is a retired university Professor, has served as President of the International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts, Editor of Foundation, and Treasurer of the BSFA, and has chaired or co-chaired three Eastercons.

Farah Mendlesohn’s best-known books are The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction (2003), Rhetorics of Fantasy (2009), and The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein (2019). Farah won a Hugo Award in 2005, the World Fantasy Award in 2017, the Mythopoeic Award in 2018 and has won three BSFA awards for non-fiction. Every book has been driven by a fascination with what the genre can do.

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Considering The Female Man by Joanna Russ, or, As the Bear Swore will be out March 31, 2026, with a launch at Eastercon 2026, and pre-orders are open. Shop on the Luna website, all the usual retailers, print and ebook.