Science fiction author Madeleine L’Engle died last Thursday at the age of 88. L’Engle broke down barriers when A Wrinkle in Time was published in the early 1960s, after being rejected by 26 publishers before Farrar, Straus & Giroux took a chance, according her obituary in The New York Times. Decades before JK Rowling raised the bar for positive female and feminist role models in “children’s" literature, L’Engle’s strong, realistic heroines gave girls and young women characters to admire and inspire, and introduced many to a lifelong love of science fiction. Feminist bloggers are noting how important L’Engle’s work was to them, grieving, and celebrating her contributions to science fiction, feminism, and faith.


Flyswallowfly wrote at Swallow. (“named after the great scientist Ellen Swallow Richards, the first woman to graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology”):