I am currently reading what might be one of the better psychological/horror novels of 2009, Caitlín R. Kiernan's The Red Tree, and I am kicking myself for not reading this when I received a copy a couple of months ago. I'm only on the second chapter (or roughly 1/6 into the 380+ page novel), but the mood, the characterizations, the mixture of the real (Kiernan put some autobiographical details into this story, similar to what Elizabeth Hand did with her outstanding Generation Loss novel from 2007) and the unreal are just outstanding - if the story keeps pace, like I suspect that it will, this easily will be one of my favorite reads for 2009.

But yet, books like Kiernan's are not being discussed here. A pity that I don't have more time available for this, but perhaps I can free up a few hours here and there over the course of the next few weeks and take a planned OF Blog feature on female authors and turn it into something that can be mirrored here.

After all, Kiernan is but one of several outstanding female authors currently writing today. On OF, I promoted Ekaterina Sedia's The Secret History of Moscow and The Alchemy of Stone (as well as conducting an interview with her). I think I was one of the earlier supporters of Sarah Monette there as well.

But there still needs to be more discussion of authors such as Margo Lanagan, whose works are often up for major SF/F awards (her most recent novel, Tender Morsels, is highly recommended by me), Catherynne M. Valente (perhaps I need to see about arranging an interview with her sometime in the near future), Anna Tambour, Theodora Goss, Elizabeth Bear, Octavia Butler, Nalo Hopkinson, and so many others.

But what about you? What current female authors would you say need to have more pimpage here?