"Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight" is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

novelette by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, originally published in the November 1987 issue of ''

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher ...

'' and collected in '' Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences''. The title is borrowed from the song "

Buffalo Gals "Buffalo Gals" is a traditional American song, written and published as "Lubly Fan" in 1844 by the blackface minstrel John Hodges, who performed as "Cool White". The song was widely popular throughout the United States, where minstrels often ...

" where the first line of the chorus is "Buffalo gals, won't you come out tonight?" It won the

Hugo Award for Best Novelette The Hugo Award for Best Novelette is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The novelette award is available for works of fiction of ...

and the World Fantasy Award for Best Novella in 1988, and was nominated for the Nebula Award and the

Theodore Sturgeon Award The Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award is an annual literary award presented by the Theodore Sturgeon Literary Trust and the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas to the author of the best short science fiction stor ...

.Locus Index to SF Awards
It was re-published in 1994 by Pomegranate Artbooks with illustrations provided by Susan Seddon Boulet.

Plot summary

A lost child tumbles into the confusing world of Southwestern U.S. desert folklore and lives for a while with the

trickster In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story ( god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwi ...

Coyote.

References

External links

* Hugo Award for Best Novelette winning works Science fiction short stories Short stories by Ursula K. Le Guin World Fantasy Award for Best Novella winners Works originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 1987 short stories {{1980s-sf-story-stub