Samantha Murphy

Samantha is writing a collection of science fiction stories, and a research component that focuses on the themes and stylistics of the works of James Tiptree Jr

Commenced 2021

Samantha is a science fiction writer. They earned their Masters in Creative Writing with Distinction from the International Institute of Modern Letters in 2020. They were awarded the Modern Letters Fiction Prize for their collection of science fiction short stories. Their stories have appeared in various mediums, including two anthology collections published by Te Herenga Waka University Press, SF magazine Strange Horizons, and local literary journals such as Headland and Turbine Kapohau. In 2021, their short story 'Rabbit' was shortlisted for the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

Samantha writes: 'The focus of my research concerns the works of James Tiptree Jr, a borderline mythic figure of the 1970s American science fiction scene. Born Alice Sheldon but most popularly published under her pseudonym, she was best known for writing feminist science fiction with a masculine flare. Not only was the author herself assumed male, her writing, her content, and her Hemingway-esque style was also adamantly gendered.

'While feminist science fiction is often analysed for its themes and questions of representation, my interest concerns its stylistics, its language, its voice. In analysising Tiptree's stories, my hope is to locate the blurry lines between feminist content, male performance, queer perspectives, and the means by which science fiction unites these resonances.

'My short story collection will be a reflection of my research, a series of stories that explore the limitations and possibilities of science fiction and its ability to speak to gender, queerness, femininity, masculinity, and the blurry territories in between.'