About

Broad Universe is a nonprofit international organization of women and men dedicated to celebrating and promoting the work of women writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror.

A Little History

Broad Universe was conceived in May 2000 during a panel discussion at WisCon, the feminist science fiction/fantasy convention held every year in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. Fans of works by women in science fiction, fantasy, and horror already had a convention (WisCon) and an award (The James Tiptree Memorial Award), but we felt that more could be done, if only we knew what it was.

Someone brought up Sisters in Crime and Women Writing the West, two nonprofit genre groups existing since 1986 and 1994, respectively. At a panel, we learned that the two organizations had, among their many activities, newsletters, books-in-print catalogs, informational tables at bookseller conventions, listservs, chat rooms, awards, and annual conventions. We gratefully realized that we could use these two groups as a template, copying what made sense for us while also trying out new things.

Broad Universe Today

Broad Universe is now a nonprofit organization under Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3). Donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

We have an online newsletter, the Broadsheet, an online books-in-print catalog, yearly paper "New Books" booklets describing member's newest releases that we hand out at genre conventions, bookselling tables at science fiction and fantasy conventions, the occasional informational table at a bookseller convention, two different listservs (one for general discussions and one just for announcements), online mailing parties several times a year to encourage members to get their works in the mail to editors, group readings at science fiction/fantasy conventions, and BroadPod, a podcast of group readings.

We've maintained our grassroots structure to allow folks to come up with good ideas for new activities that will help us promote our authors in this rapidly changing publishing climate. A core group of advisors and Motherboard members help make sure that our activities don't spread our efforts too thinly or veer away from our core mission.