Sally Miller Gearhart était une enseignante, féministe, auteure de science-fiction et militante politique américaine. Son travail explorait souvent les thèmes de l'identité, de la sexualité et du changement social. Gearhart s'est fait connaître pour son activisme pionnier et pour ses contributions littéraires qui ont exploré les limites des normes sociétales et imaginé de nouvelles façons d'exister.
First published in 1978, The Wanderground stayed in print until 1999. The women who are its protagonists live in the near future, developing their relationships and their psychic gifts in rural ensconcements deliberately separate from men and patriarchal culture. They reproduce by ovular merging, learn to fly at an early age, enjoy magical relationships with plants and animals, and struggle to live by the non-competitive values and sensibilities that they understand to be unique to their sex. They communicate individually through mindstretch (telepathy), and in groups by far-reaching gatherstretches.