Consider five people geographically separate, on points ranging from the Atlantic island of Martha’s Vineyard, to Boston, to Pocatello in Idaho, to San Francisco and at the farthest extreme, Melbourne. Our task was to assess texts eligible for the 1995 James Tiptree Jr award, for speculative fictions, short or long, which explore and expand concepts of gender. Ultimately, we did select two winners. And the decision, involving as it did five very disparate individuals communicating over thousands of miles – in order, east to west, Susanna Sturgis (editor), Ellen Kushner (writer), Brian Attebery (academic and critic), Pat Murphy (writer and award founder), and myself – was unaminous.