''Amazons!'' is an

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

stories, edited by

Jessica Amanda Salmonson Jessica Amanda Salmonson (born January 6, 1950 John Clute and John Grant,Salmonson, Jessica Amanda, in ''The Encyclopedia of Fantasy'', pp. 832–833, Orbit, London / St Martin’s Press, New York (1997).) is an American author and editor of fan ...

, with a cover and frontispiece by

Michael Whelan Michael Whelan (born 29 June 1950) is an American artist of imaginative realism. For more than 30 years, he worked as an illustrator, specializing in science fiction and fantasy cover art. Since the mid-1990s, he has pursued a fine art career, ...

. It was first published in paperback by DAW Books in December 1979, and was the first significant fantasy anthology of works featuring female protagonists by (mostly) female authors. It received the 1980

World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

Summary

The book collects 14 short stories, novelettes and poems by various fantasy authors, with an introduction by Salmonson and an essay on additional reading by Salmonson and Susan Wood.

*"Amazons" (poem) ( Melanie Kaye) *"Introduction: Our Amazon Heritage" (

) *"The Dreamstone" (

C. J. Cherryh Carolyn Janice Cherry (born September 1, 1942), better known by the pen name C. J. Cherryh, is an American writer of speculative fiction. She has written more than 80 books since the mid-1970s, including the Hugo Award-winning novels '' Downbelo ...

) *"Wolves of Nakesht" (

Janrae Frank Janrae Frank was an American journalist, writer and editor known primarily for her work in science fiction and fantasy. She wrote extensively on the subject of women and feminism in speculative fiction. Life and career Her first published short ...

) *"Woman of the White Waste" ( T. J. Morgan) *"The Death of Augusta" (poem) (

Emily Brontë Emily Jane Brontë (, commonly ; 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English novelist and poet who is best known for her only novel, ''Wuthering Heights'', now considered a classic of English literature. She also published a book of poet ...

; edited by

Joanna Russ Joanna Russ (February 22, 1937 – April 29, 2011) was an American writer, academic and feminist. She is the author of a number of works of science fiction, fantasy and feminist literary criticism such as ''How to Suppress Women's Writing'', as w ...

) *"Morrien's Bitch" (

Janet Fox Janet Fox (June 12, 1912 – April 22, 2002) was an American actress. Life and career Born in Chicago, Illinois, Fox was the niece of American novelist and playwright Edna Ferber. She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Art after lea ...

) *"Agbewe's Sword" (

Charles R. Saunders Charles Robert Saunders (July 12, 1946May 2020) was an African-American author and journalist, a pioneer of the "sword and soul" literary genre with his Imaro novels.Tattrie, Jon.The extraordinary inner world of Charles R. Saunders, father of ...

) *"Jane Saint's Travails (Part One)" ( Josephine Saxton) *"The Sorrows of Witches" (

Margaret St. Clair __NOTOC__ Margaret St. Clair (17 February 1911 – 22 November 1995) was an American fantasy and science fiction writer, who also wrote under the pseudonyms Idris Seabright and Wilton Hazzard. Biography St. Clair was born as Eva Margaret Neeley ...

) *"Falcon Blood" (

Andre Norton Andre Alice Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 – March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen name ...

) *"The Rape Patrol" ( Michele Belling) *"Bones for Dulath" (

Megan Lindholm Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden (born March 5, 1952), known by her pen names Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm, is an American writer of speculative fiction. As Hobb, she is best known for her fantasy novels set in the ''Realm of the Elderlings'', w ...

) *"Northern Chess" (

Tanith Lee Tanith Lee (19 September 1947 – 24 May 2015) was a British science fiction and fantasy writer. She wrote more than 90 novels and 300 short stories, and was the winner of multiple World Fantasy Society Derleth Awards, the World Fantasy Lifetime ...

) *"The Woman Who Loved the Moon" ( Elizabeth A. Lynn) *"Additional Reading" (

and Susan Wood)

Awards

The collection won the 1980 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology/Collection, placed fourth in the 1980 Locus Poll Award for Best Anthology, and was nominated for both the 1980 and 1981

Balrog Award The Balrog Awards were a set of awards given annually from 1979 to 1985 for the best works and achievements of speculative fiction in the previous year. The awards were named after the balrog, a fictional creature from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-ear ...

for Collection/Anthology.

References

1979 anthologies Fantasy anthologies DAW Books books World Fantasy Award-winning works Books with cover art by Michael Whelan {{1970s-fantasy-story-collection-stub

Summary

Contents

Awards

References