Rebecca J. Holden

Rebecca J. Holden grew up in south central Minnesota, not far from Plum Creek, where Laura Ingalls Wilder got her start. Holden loved the Little House on the Prairie book series as a child, but after she discovered science fiction, she left the prairies behind for stars and aliens. Holden earned her B.S. in communication studies from Northwestern University and her Ph.D. in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her doctoral research focused on feminist theory, utopias, and science fiction; after all, if she was going to spend years of her life researching and writing about something, she wanted it to be something that would keep her interest. In Madison, Holden became involved with WisCon, the world’s largest feminist science fiction convention. She coordinated the academic track of programming at WisCon for several years and continues to attend and present at WisCon. Her published essays include “The High Costs of Cyborg Survival: Octavia Butler's Xenogensesis Trilogy” (in Foundation, 1998) and “Of Synners and Brainworms: Feminism on the Wire” (in Women of Other Worlds: Excursions through Science Fiction and Feminism, University of Western Australia Press, 1999). She is also the co-editor with Nisi Shawl of Strange Matings: Octavia E. Butler, Science Fiction, African Voices, and Feminism (forthcoming from Aqueduct Press). She currently lives in the DC metro area with her husband and two children (as well as a dog and a bird) and teaches professional writing as an underpaid, overworked adjunct at the University of Maryland, College Park.