Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight

Short story by Ursula K. Le Guin

"Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight"
Short story by Ursula K. Le Guin

Genre(s)	Science fiction
Publication
Publisher	The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
Publication date	November 1987

"Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, originally published in the November 1987 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and collected in Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences (1987).^[1] The title is borrowed from the song "Buffalo Gals" where the first line of the chorus is "Buffalo gals, won't you come out tonight?"

It won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette and the World Fantasy Award—Novella in 1988, and was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novelette and the Theodore Sturgeon Award.^[2]

It was re-published in 1994 by Pomegranate Artbooks with illustrations provided by Susan Seddon Boulet.

Plot summary

A lost child tumbles into the confusing world of Southwestern U.S. desert folklore and lives for a while with the trickster Coyote.

References

^ "Bibliography: Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight". isfdb.org. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
^ Locus Index to SF Awards Archived August 17, 2009, at the Wayback Machine

External links

Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Works by Ursula K. Le Guin

Bibliography

Earthsea

Novels	A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) The Tombs of Atuan (1971) The Farthest Shore (1972) Tehanu (1990) The Other Wind (2001)
Short stories	"The Word of Unbinding" (1964) "The Rule of Names" (1964) "Dragonfly" (1997) "Darkrose and Diamond" (1999) "The Daughter of Odren" (2014) "Firelight" (2018)
Collections	Tales from Earthsea (2001) The Books of Earthsea (2018)
Adaptations	Earthsea (miniseries) (2004) Tales from Earthsea (film) (2006)
Related	Universe Characters Ged Earthsea Revisioned (1993)

Hainish
Cycle

Novels	Rocannon's World (1966) Planet of Exile (1966) City of Illusions (1967) The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) The Dispossessed (1974) The Word for World Is Forest (1976) Four Ways to Forgiveness (1995) The Telling (2000)
Short stories	"The Dowry of Angyar" (1964) "Winter's King" (1969) "Vaster than Empires and More Slow" (1971) "The Day Before the Revolution" (1974) The Shobies' Story (1990) "The Matter of Seggri" (1994) "A Man of the People" "Coming of Age in Karhide" (1995) "Mountain Ways" (1996) "Old Music and the Slave Women" (1999)
Related	Ansible

Annals of the Western Shore

Novels	Gifts (2004) Voices (2006) Powers (2007)

Other
fiction

Novels	The Lathe of Heaven (1971) Very Far Away from Anywhere Else (1976) The Eye of the Heron (1978) Malafrena (1979) The Beginning Place (1980) Always Coming Home (1985) Lavinia (2008)
Short stories	"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" (1973) "The Diary of the Rose" (1976) "The Wife's Story" (1982) "Paradises Lost" (2002)
Collections	The Wind's Twelve Quarters (1975) Orsinian Tales (1976) The Compass Rose (1982) Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences (1987) A Fisherman of the Inland Sea (1994) Unlocking the Air and Other Stories (1996) The Birthday of the World (2002) Changing Planes (2003)
Children's books	Catwings (series) (1988–1999) Cat Dreams

Non-fiction

The Language of the Night (1979)
Dancing at the Edge of the World (1982)
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching (1997)
Steering the Craft (1998)

v t e Hugo Award for Best Novelette
Retro Hugos	"Rule 18" by Clifford D. Simak (1939) "The Roads Must Roll" by Robert A. Heinlein (1941) "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov (1943) "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" by Lewis Padgett (1944) "First Contact" by Murray Leinster (1946) "The Little Black Bag" by Cyril M. Kornbluth (1951) "Earthman, Come Home" by James Blish (1954)
1955–1960	"The Darfsteller" by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (1955) "Exploration Team" by Murray Leinster (1956) "The Big Time" by Fritz Leiber (1958) "The Big Front Yard" by Clifford D. Simak (1959)
1967–1980	"The Last Castle" by Jack Vance (1967) "Gonna Roll the Bones" by Fritz Leiber (1968) "The Sharing of Flesh" by Poul Anderson (1969) "Goat Song" by Poul Anderson (1973) "The Deathbird" by Harlan Ellison (1974) "Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W" by Harlan Ellison (1975) "The Borderland of Sol" by Larry Niven (1976) "The Bicentennial Man" by Isaac Asimov (1977) "Eyes of Amber" by Joan D. Vinge (1978) "Hunter's Moon" by Poul Anderson (1979) "Sandkings" by George R. R. Martin (1980)
1981–1990	"The Cloak and the Staff" by Gordon R. Dickson (1981) "Unicorn Variation" by Roger Zelazny (1982) "Fire Watch" by Connie Willis (1983) "Blood Music" by Greg Bear (1984) "Bloodchild" by Octavia E. Butler (1985) "Paladin of the Lost Hour" by Harlan Ellison (1986) "Permafrost" by Roger Zelazny (1987) "Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight" by Ursula K. Le Guin (1988) "Schrödinger's Kitten" by George Alec Effinger (1989) "Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another" by Robert Silverberg (1990)
1991–2000	"The Manamouki" by Mike Resnick (1991) "Gold" by Isaac Asimov (1992) "The Nutcracker Coup" by Janet Kagan (1993) "Georgia on My Mind" by Charles Sheffield (1994) "The Martian Child" by David Gerrold (1995) "Think Like a Dinosaur" by James Patrick Kelly (1996) "Bicycle Repairman" by Bruce Sterling (1997) "We Will Drink a Fish Together..." by Bill Johnson (1998) "Taklamakan" by Bruce Sterling (1999) "10¹⁶ to 1" by James Patrick Kelly (2000)
2001–2010	"Millennium Babies" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (2001) "Hell Is the Absence of God" by Ted Chiang (2002) "Slow Life" by Michael Swanwick (2003) "Legions in Time" by Michael Swanwick (2004) "The Faery Handbag" by Kelly Link (2005) "Two Hearts" by Peter S. Beagle (2006) "The Djinn's Wife" by Ian McDonald (2007) "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang (2008) "Shoggoths in Bloom" by Elizabeth Bear (2009) "The Island" by Peter Watts (2010)
2011–2020	"The Emperor of Mars" by Allen Steele (2011) "Six Months, Three Days" by Charlie Jane Anders (2012) "The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi" by Pat Cadigan (2013) "The Lady Astronaut of Mars", by Mary Robinette Kowal (2014) "The Day the World Turned Upside Down" by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, translated by Lia Belt (2015) "Folding Beijing" by Hao Jingfang (2016) "The Tomato Thief" by Ursula Vernon (2017) "The Secret Life of Bots" by Suzanne Palmer (2018) "If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again" by Zen Cho (2019) "Emergency Skin" by N. K. Jemisin (2020)
2021–present	"Two Truths and a Lie" by Sarah Pinsker (2021) "Bots of the Lost Ark" by Suzanne Palmer (2022) "The Space-Time Painter" by Hai Ya (2023)

v t e World Fantasy Award—Novella
1982–2000	The Fire When It Comes by Parke Godwin (1982) Confess the Seasons by Charles L. Grant (1983, tie) Beyond Any Measure by Karl Edward Wagner (1983, tie) Black Air by Kim Stanley Robinson (1984) The Unconquered Country by Geoff Ryman (1985) Nadelman's God by T.E.D. Klein (1986) Hatrack River by Orson Scott Card (1987) Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight by Ursula K. Le Guin (1988) The Skin Trade by George R. R. Martin (1989) "Great Work of Time" by John Crowley (1990) Bones by Pat Murphy (1991) The Ragthorn by Robert Holdstock and Garry Kilworth (1992) The Ghost Village by Peter Straub (1993) Under the Crust by Terry Lamsley (1994) Last Summer at Mars Hill by Elizabeth Hand (1995) Radio Waves by Michael Swanwick (1996) A City in Winter by Mark Helprin (1997) Streetcar Dreams by Richard Bowes (1998) The Summer Isles by Ian R. MacLeod (1999) The Transformation of Martin Lake by Jeff VanderMeer (2000, tie) Sky Eyes by Laurel Winter (2000, tie)
2001–present	The Man on the Ceiling by Steve Rasnic Tem & Melanie Tem (2001) The Bird Catcher by S. P. Somtow (2002) The Library by Zoran Živković (2003) A Crowd of Bone by Greer Gilman (2004) The Growlimb by Michael Shea (2005) Voluntary Committal by Joe Hill (2006) Botch Town by Jeffrey Ford (2007) Illyria by Elizabeth Hand (2008) If Angels Fight by Richard Bowes (2009) Sea-Hearts by Margo Lanagan (2010) The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon by Elizabeth Hand (2011) A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong by K. J. Parker (2012) Let Maps to Others by K. J. Parker (2013) Wakulla Springs by Andy Duncan and Ellen Klages (2014) We Are All Completely Fine by Daryl Gregory (2015) The Unlicensed Magician by Kelly Barnhill (2016) The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson (2017) Passing Strange by Ellen Klages (2018) "The Privilege of the Happy Ending" by Kij Johnson (2019) Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh (2020) Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi (2021) And What Can We Offer You Tonight by Premee Mohamed (2022)

World Fantasy Award—Novella

1982–2000