"Stable Strategies for Middle Management" is a

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

published in 1988 by

Eileen Gunn Eileen Gunn (born June 23, 1945, Dorchester, Massachusetts) is an American science fiction author and editor based in Seattle, Washington, who began publishing in 1978. Her story "Coming to Terms", inspired, in part, by a friendship with Avram Da ...

Plot summary

Margaret is a corporate executive who, to prove her loyalty to the company, undergoes bioengineering that gradually transforms her into a giant insect.

Reception

"Stable Strategies for Middle Management" was a finalist for the 1989

Hugo Award for Best Short Story The Hugo Award for Best Short Story 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 short story award is available for works of fiction of ...

.1989 Hugo Awards
at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved September 9, 2021 ''

Strange Horizons ''Strange Horizons'' is an online magazine, online speculative fiction magazine. It also features speculative poetry and non-fiction in every issue, including reviews, essays, interviews, and roundtables. History and profile It was launched in S ...

'' considered that it "must come high in any list of best SF short stories";Questionable Practices by Eileen Gunn
reviewed by Andy Sawyer, at ''

'', published June 16, 2014; retrieved September 9, 2021 similarly,

Michael Swanwick Michael Swanwick (born November 18, 1950) is an American list of fantasy authors, fantasy and List of science-fiction authors, science fiction author who began publishing in the early 1980s. Writing career Swanwick's fiction writing began w ...

has placed it on his personal "short list (...) of the best short stories of the late twentieth century." About Stable Strategies...
by

, at MichaelSwanwick.com; published 2005; retrieved September 9, 2021

Background

The story is inspired by Gunn's experiences as an advertising director at

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

.''Stable Strategies and Others'', by Eileen Gunn; published 2004 by

Tachyon Publications Tachyon Publications is an independent press specializing in science fiction and fantasy books. Founded in San Francisco in 1995 by Jacob Weisman, Tachyon books have tended toward high-end literary works, short story collections, and anthologies ...

References

External links

* Science fiction short stories 1988 short stories Works originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction {{1980s-sf-story-stub