A play performed and written by Jenny Rowe

James Tiptree Jr. was known as a CIA official, an international traveller and an “ineluctably masculine” writer of science fiction. But in 1976, he was ‘outed’ as Alice B Sheldon, a 61-year-old woman from Virginia who had to face the repercussions to her life and career.

A life full of boundary-breaking, brilliance and experimentation, she struggled with depression, gender barriers and sexuality; some found her frustrating and difficult, but many more loved her. She became great friends with other eminent writers, including – Ursula K LeGuin, Frederick Pohl, Anne McCaffrey and Joanna Russ.

She won the Hugo, Nebula, Jupiter and World Fantasy Awards and had an award named after her – the James Tiptree Jr. Award (now called ‘Otherwise’) – for works of fiction that explore gender.

Playwright Jen Rowe grew up in the jam-making village of Tiptree. She was bemused to find an American writer of the same name, and delighted to find ‘he’ wrote Sci-Fi. Her one woman play ‘No-One Else’s Damn Secret But My Own’ is a culmination of 6-years research and a visit to Alice Sheldon’s Chicago childhood home.

£10 – £13

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