And aside from that? I fully second Ballard and Crowley and Harrison. I add C J Cherryh - why has no one begged me to read and love her before?

It's - there are these oldy goldies, like Cherryh, Niven, Sutcliffe, Sawyer, even Lem. I think everyone assumes that they are so awesome that everyone knows about them. So new readers who are trying to find out whom to read on their own are a bit lost.
I'm not sure whether to add Kushner and Monette and Lowachee to this list or not. I don't see them around much, but I think everyone whom I would listen to has read them, even if the only review I remember is Pat's of The Privilege of the word, and he hated it, but it's not in his general reading profile anyway.

I'd add Scarlet Thomas and Audrey Niffeneger to the list too, but that is because I live in India now. India has their books but no one is talking about her.

There are some up and coming Indian authors whom I have not read yet and who may fit the bill. Gimme a few months.

OH MY GOD I forgot Leigh brackett. I think part of the problem here is that she mostly only wrote science fiction, and she was very much a writer of her times, and so I think if she wrote exactly the same stuff today she might not have a great readership. But I read the Gollanz The Sea Kings of Mars and it was excellently engrossing.

There're o many others. I shall come back tomorrow and talk some more, with more names. I have 'em!