Gloss’s implication is that all life is interconnected, changing, and within the compass of the writer’s craft.

In Wild Life (2000), Gloss questions the boundaries of human/animal identity. The species of her science fiction novel, The Dazzle of Day (1997), are imperiled and the human characters, diverse and individual in many ways, share a deep sense of ecological responsibility. In her novella, Outside the Gates (1986), a young boy has powers of communication with other animals, and The Jump-Off Creek (1989) gives mules individual characters.

Her work also shows a developing concern with relations between humans and other species. Like other western writers, Gloss emphasizes landscape in her writing-the Northwest woods, ranching or riverine estuary country, and a bleak and distant planet. Gloss’s science fiction reveals detailed knowledge of technology, cosmology, and human nature. For its sequel, Falling from Horses (2014), she researched the lives of westerners working as Hollywood extras in the late 1930s and the ruthless exploitation they and their horses suffered. For The Hearts of Horses (2007), for example, she learned to ride a horse and took instruction on how to gentle wild or frightened horses. She feels a particular debt to her great grandmothers, four “westering women,” and infuses all of her work with western themes and issues.įor her work, Gloss researches the cultural and historical milieux of her factually based novels, explores their locations, and studies the skills her characters possess.

In Gloss’s work, toughness is not a gendered but a western virtue. Most of her male characters are strong and patient but also tough. They are remarkably original in their solutions, whether as novelists, screenwriters, horse-gentlers, or workers in outer space. Her women characters work as much and at least as well as men, showing initiative and endurance. Women's lives are one of her abiding interests, whether in distant galaxies or in the turn-of-the-twentieth-century Northwest. In addition to short stories (Unforeseen, 2019), Gloss has written a novella for young people and five full-length adult fictions. Le Guin, who encouraged Gloss in her writing and helped her find a literary agent. She studied history and English at Portland State College (now Portland State University). First a teacher, then a clerk, she became a full-time writer in 1980, balancing her work with marriage and motherhood. As a child, she benefited from family trips through the West, her father's collection of westerns, and the Multnomah County Library. Molly Gloss, prize-winning novelist and short-story writer, was born in 1944 and has lived in and near Portland all her life.

The Jump-Off Creek by Molly Gloss