The Joanna Russ Papers consist of fifteen boxes, twelve of correspondence and three of literary manuscripts. The correspondence is organized by the last name of the correspondent, with the earliest letters first; miscellaneous letters are filed at the beginning of each alphabetical group. Russ maintained an extensive correspondence with many U.S. and English feminist writers and theorists of the late twentieth century as well as with numbers of her former university colleagues and students and with those involved in science fiction. The basis of most of the friendships was the ongoing literary work and emerging feminist radicalism in which the correspondents were engaged in one form or another. The collection offers a view of the evolution of thought among a sizable group of women intellectuals as they attempted to conceptualize feminism and to apply feminist perceptions of power in society into the realities of their own lives. Both intellectual and personal trends present in the Western feminism of the late twentieth can be traced in this correspondence, for example the correspondence explores the difficulties of every day life and the vicissitudes of work faced by women who defined themselves as feminist in the late twentieth century North Atlantic region. These difficulties are entwined with the solace offered by long-term correspondence, a solace which her correspondents often find in their communication with Russ. Russ's loyalty to and care of her students is another theme that of the correspondence; thanks for her encouragement and advice are scattered throughout the collection. The public image of professionalism Russ and her correspondents maintained as university professors, publishers, editors and writers drops away at moments and an illuminating level of bitterness emerges, even sharper than that in public works. Fan mail, arranged alphabetically by the last name of the writer, is another opportunity Russ used to engage and instruct people whose thinking would benefit from feminist insight and, sadly often, whose manners could also use some improvement.

Often ebullient, thought provoking, rueful and instructive, the correspondence as a whole offers a complex view of a particular historical moment in the letters of women and men who were deeply involved in evolution of feminist thought and/or the possibilities of imagination in science fiction writing.

The Literary Works Series is also arranged alphabetically, by the name of the work. The collection includes manuscripts of her novels; unpublished plays; published and unpublished short stories, theoretical essays, and sketches of contemporary life.