Student organizes author’s archive

UO Libraries Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) acquired the Vonda McIntyre papers in 2018 and 2019, adding a rich body of material to its already-strong collecting area of feminist science fiction and female authors. The collection, consisting of about 26 cartons, was organized by second-year undergraduate Alexa Rose during spring term under the guidance of SCUA’s Lead Processing Archivist Mahala Ruddell. Rose was the 2024 recipient of the Humanities Undergraduate Program in Archival Studies and Practice fellowship administered by the OHC and SCUA. She is majoring in History and also studying Linguistics and Cultural Management. She arranged and described McIntyre’s personal and professional papers, opening the collection to scholars across the country and around the world for the first time—all while gaining library science and digital humanities experience and developing project management, data collection, and analytical skills.

Vonda McIntyre (1948–2019) was an award-winning author most known for her work in the science/speculative fiction genre. When she began reading science fiction as a young girl, male writers dominated the genre. By her 30s, she was one of the category’s leading women, following a path established by Ursula K. Le Guin, Kate Wilhelm and Anne McCaffrey. Throughout her career, she wrote novels, short stories, and media tie-in books, and edited a groundbreaking anthology of feminist science fiction. She became known as a mentor through her founding in the 1970s of the Clarion West Writers’ Workshop in Seattle (where her friendship with Le Guin flowered). She encouraged many writers, mostly women, over the decades. She was winner of multiple Nebula, Hugo, and Locus awards, particularly for her novels, Dreamsnake and The Moon and the Sun.