Charlie Jane has a fun piece at i09 called "4 Writers We Wish Would Return to Science Fiction," including two of my favorite writers of all time, Nicola Griffith and Karen Joy Fowler. (I cop to not having read nearly enough Mary Doria Russell or Samuel Delany, though I enjoyed what I have read by each of them a great deal.) You should really go read the whole piece, but here's a snippet from Karen:
One final point. In the last couple of weeks I've read about toxoplasma — the parasite that alters our behavior until we're simply pawns in the paws of housepet cats; a woman in India found guilty of murdering her fiance based on her brain scan; a site on the internet where for a monthly fee a computer will pray for you ceaselessly. Stan Robinson says we all live in a science fiction novel now and it's clearly true. So I truly believe that science fiction is realism now and literary realism is a nostalgic literature about a place where we once lived, but no longer do.
For the record, I'll read anything either of these ladies write. Also, I got to read the new story K references at the workshop in the mountains last week, and it is fabulous.
I just bought a science fiction story by Nicola Griffith for my anthology Eclipse Three, and am looking at sort-of SF story by Karen Joy Fowler for the same book. Might be your kind of book 🙂
Sounds fabulous!