'Dealing with possibilities, present and future'

 

“The historical novelist has to consider what has actually happened, while the SF writer is dealing in possibilities, but they are both in the business of imagining a world unlike our own and yet connected to it.” – Pamela Sargent

Born on this date in 1948, Sargent is an American science fiction author and editor and winner of the prestigious Nebula Award.  She also has been presented The Pilgrim Award for Lifetime Achievement from The Science Fiction Research Association. 

 

Her best-known works are a series on the terraforming of Venus; the editing of various anthologies celebrating the contributions of women in the history of science fiction; and her excellent Firebrands: The Heroines of Science Fiction and Fantasy (co-authored with Ron Miller) and the Women of Wonder series.   

                                                                        

 Sargent has penned some 30 novels and half-dozen story collections and collaborated on several novels in the Star Trek series.  Her work is noted for its connections between time periods.  She said history is crucial to Sci Fi writing. “A feeling for history is almost an essential for writing and appreciating good science fiction,” she said.  “(It’s crucial) for sensing the connections between the past and future that run through our present.”

 

 “My grandfather allowed as how I might live long enough to see a Mars landing,” she said.   “I haven't, of course, except in fiction, including my own, and strongly doubt that I ever will.”