Fantasy fiction doesn’t need reclaiming for women – they already write and read it

‘Female fantasy writers do not seem to get the recognition, and readership, they deserve – despite some, like NK Jemisin – dominating genre awards.’ Photograph: PR

I was disappointed to read your view on romantasy fiction (Editorial, 7 February), which seemed to imply that the fantasy genre needed reclaiming for women. This does a huge disservice to the many excellent female fantasy authors – some recent, some around for decades – who have been a mainstay of the genre despite not writing romance or teen fiction.

These women do not seem to get the recognition, and readership, that they deserve – despite some, such as NK Jemisin, Ann Leckie, Charlie Jane Anders, RF Kuang or Martha Wells, dominating genre awards. These authors also have to fight the continual misperception that they only write romantic or young adult fiction, which is exactly the fantasy that your article perpetuates. And this also erases all the female fantasy readers who are not (solely) here for the romantasy, and have always been here.