March is Furry Women’s Month – guest post by Shining River.

by Patch O'Furr

Thanks to Shining River for submitting this guest post.

BUST: The Secret Lives Of Female Furries “K2 in her fursuit, photo: Derek Jensen”

In the United States in 1980, a presidential proclamation signed by then president Jimmy Carter designated the week of March 8, 1980 as National Women’s History Week.  In 1987, the Congress of the United States passed Pub. L. 100-9 which designated the month of March 1987 as Women’s History Month.

Here in our furry community, Twitter user @SunTattooWolf began the hashtag #FemaleFursuiterMonth two years ago. Much like the hashtag #furryblackhistorymonth from last month which was inspired by the celebration of National Black History month in the United States in the month of February, #FemaleFursuiterMonth aims to applaud the women of the furry community who make the effort to express themselves and entertain the rest of us with their fursuit awesomeness. #FemaleFursuiterMonth does also include transgender women.

Women who fursuit are also featured on the WordPress blog of Rune, sharing her furry enthusiasm with us.

Female furries do much more! The furry community also has the benefit of some talented and prolific female writers. The membership of the Furry Writers Guild comprises some 165 members, of which approximately thirty-two are women and transgender women. Several are winners of the Ursa Major Award and/or the Coyotl Award. Please visit their site for links to where you may read some stories for free and where you may purchase their works.

Some research on FurAffinity indicates that there are several female orientated groups, but none that this writer looked at appear to be very active. One group, “lady-furs”, has had some meets at furcons. You may look for yourself here (this is a list of groups classified as “Gender/Identity, Love, Relationship Status, & Sexuality ” and was apparently updated three years ago.  Does anyone out there have anything relevant that is more current?)

Here are some members from the Furry Writers Guild:

Frances Pauli

Books include “Spiders from Memory” and “Kundalis Storm Dragon”.

Carmen K. Welsh Jr.

“My short story “Night Sounds” is out in literary journal Prick of the Spindle! Why is this important? The short story is from my Furry working historical novel!”

Angela “LemurKat” Oliver

Books include “Aroha’s Great Adventure”, “Fellowship of the Ringtails” and “Tails of the Scions.”

Lauren Rivers

Published in Roar Vol. 4;  a short story titled “Almost Famous”. Also a fursuiter.

Mary E. Lowd

Her fiction has been nominated thirteen times in the Ursa Major Awards and has won a Cóyotl Award. It includes her Otters In Space books and she has at least three anthologies.

Laura “Munchkin” Lewis

Her story “The Cat Thief” was published in the ROAR 6 anthology.

M.C.A. Hogarth

Her short story “In the Line of Duty” won the 2003 Ursa Major Award for Best Anthropomorphic Short Fiction.

Huskyteer  (Alice Dryden)

In 2011 and 2012, her stories were accepted for publication in Heat, ROAR and Allasso.

Rene Carter Hall  “Poetigress”

Her novel By Sword and Star (Anthro Dreams, 2012) won the Cóyotl Award for Best Novel, while Huntress (FurPlanet, 2015) was honored with the Cóyotl Award for Best Novella. She was also the Writer Guest of Honor at RainFurrest 2015.

Vixxy Fox

Her book (in third printing) ‘Tales Of The Fur Side’ was done with artist Dark Natasha.

Sarina Dorie

She has sold short stories to over thirty-five magazines and anthologies including Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine (F & SF), Daily Science Fiction, Cosmos, Penumbra, Sword and Laser, Perihelion, Bards and Sages, Neo-Opsis, Flagship, Allasso, New Myths, Untied Shoelaces of the Mind, and Crossed Genres, to name a few.

Fred Patten adds:

“The Furry Future contains “The Analogue Cat” by Alice “Huskyteer” Dryden, which won both the Cóyotl and Ursa Major Awards as Best Short Fiction of the Year.  The cover of The Furry Future is by Teagan Gavet, and the anthology contains stories by three other women authors (although one doesn’t like her gender revealed).  Gods With Fur also has a cover by Teagan Gavet, and contains five stories by women, including one that is on both the Cóyotl and Ursa Major final ballots for Best Short Fiction of last year and a second story by a woman author on the Ursa Major ballot.”