‘Who are we?’, ‘why are we here?’, and ‘what does the future hold?’ Just some questions posed by the British Library’s first exhibition exploring science fiction through literature, film, and illustration from the second century to the latest best-selling novels. Guest curator Andy Sawyer, science fiction collections librarian, Liverpool University, tells how he undertook the difficult task of selecting what to include from this wealth of material. Science fiction author Gwyneth Jones, winner of numerous awards, for her mostly science fiction and near future fantasy with strong gender themes, gives a science fiction writer’s view of this groundbreaking exhibition and what might lie ahead – especially for women science fiction writers.