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'{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2013}} {{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] --> | name = Octavia E. Butler | image = Butler_signing.jpg | imagesize = 225px | caption = Butler signs a copy of ''Fledgling'' in October 2005. | pseudonym = |birth_name=Octavia Estelle Butler | birth_date = {{birth date|1947|6|22|mf=y}} | birth_place = [[Pasadena, California]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2006|2|24|1947|6|22|mf=y}} | death_place = {{nowrap|[[Lake Forest Park, Washington]], U.S.}} | occupation = Writer | nationality = American | period = 1970–2006<ref name=isfdb/> | genre = [[Science fiction]] | subject = | movement = | notableworks = | awards = }} '''Octavia Estelle Butler''' (June 22, 1947{{spaced ndash}}February 24, 2006) was an American [[science fiction writer]]. A multiple recipient of both the [[Hugo award|Hugo]] and [[Nebula award|Nebula]] awards, Butler was one of the best-known women in the field. In 1995, she became the first science fiction writer to receive the [[MacArthur Fellowship]], nicknamed the "Genius Grant".<ref name="kindafter1">Crossley, Robert. "Critical Essay." In&nbsp;''Kindred'', by Octavia Butler. Boston: Beacon, 2004. ISBN 0807083690&nbsp;(10)&nbsp;ISBN 978-0807083697&nbsp;(13) </ref><ref name=macfound>{{cite web|title=Octavia Butler|url=https://www.macfound.org/fellows/505/|website=MacArthur Foundation Fellows|accessdate=9 October 2015}}</ref> == Early life == Octavia Estelle Butler was born on June 22, 1947, in [[Pasadena, California]], the only child of Octavia Margaret Guy, a housemaid, and Laurice James Butler, a shoeshine man. Butler's father died when she was seven, so Octavia was raised by her mother and maternal grandmother in what she would later recall as a strict [[Baptists|Baptist]] environment.<ref name=Gant>Gant-Britton, Lisbeth. "Butler, Octavia (1947– )." ''African American Writers''. Ed. Valerie Smith. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. 95–110.</ref> Growing up in the racially integrated community of Pasadena allowed Butler to experience cultural and ethnic diversity in the midst of [[racial segregation]]. She accompanied her mother to her cleaning work and witnessed her entering white people's houses through back doors. Her mother was treated poorly by her employers.<ref name="EAAW">"Butler, Octavia E. (Estelle) 6/22/1947–2/24/2006." ''Encyclopedia of African-American Writing: Five Centuries of Contribution: Trials and Triumphs of Writers, Poets, Publications and Organizations'', 2nd Ed. Ed. Shari Dorantes Hatch. Amenia, NY: Grey House, 2009.</ref><ref name="Rowell">Butler, Octavia E. "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler." Charles H. Rowell. ''Callaloo'' 20.1 (1997): 47–66. [[JSTOR]]&nbsp;[http://www.jstor.org/stable/3299291 3299291]</ref><ref name="Pfeiffer">Pfeiffer, John R. "Butler, Octavia Estelle (b. 1947)." ''Science Fiction Writers: Critical Studies of the Major Authors from the Early Nineteenth Century to the Present Day''. Ed. Richard Bleiler. 2nd ed. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999. 147–158.</ref> {{quote box | align = right | width = 23em | quote = "I began writing about power because I had so little." | salign = right | source = Octavia E. Butler, in Carolyn S. Davidson's <br />"The Science Fiction of Octavia Butler." }} From an early age, an almost paralyzing shyness made it difficult for Butler to socialize with other children. Her awkwardness, paired with a slight [[dyslexia]]<ref name="obit">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/books/01butler.html?pagewanted=print | title=Octavia E. Butler, Science Fiction Writer, Dies at 58 | work=New York Times | date=1 March 2006 | accessdate=7 March 2016 | author=Fox Margalit}}</ref> that made schoolwork a torment, led her to believe that she was "ugly and stupid, clumsy, and socially hopeless," becoming an easy target for bullies.<ref name=PosObs>Butler, Octavia E. "Positive Obsession." ''Bloodchild and Other Stories''. New York : Seven Stories, 2005. 123–136.</ref> As a result, she frequently passed the time reading at the [[Pasadena Public Library]]<ref name=Smalls>Smalls, F. Romall. "Butler, Octavia Estelle." ''The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives''. Ed. Arnold Markoe, Karen Markoe, and Kenneth T. Jackson. Vol. 8: 2006–2008. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2010. 65–66.</ref> and writing reams and reams of pages in her "big pink notebook".<ref name=PosObs /> Hooked at first on [[fairy tale]]s and horse stories, she quickly became interested in [[science fiction magazine]]s such as ''[[Amazing Stories]]'' (aka ''Amazing''), ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]'' (aka ''Galaxy''), and ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction]]'', and began reading stories by [[John Brunner (novelist)|John Brunner]], [[Zenna Henderson]], and [[Theodore Sturgeon]].<ref name=Pfeiffer /><ref name=McCaffery>McCaffery, Larry and Jim McMenamin. "An Interview with Octavia Butler." ''Across the Wounded Galaxies: Interviews with Contemporary American Science Fiction Writers''. Ed. Larry McCaffery. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1990.</ref> At age 10, she begged her mother to buy her a [[Remington Rand|Remington]] typewriter on which she "pecked [her] stories two fingered".<ref name=PosObs /> At 12, watching the televised version of the film ''[[Devil Girl from Mars]]'' (1954) convinced her she could write a better story, so she drafted what would later become the basis for her [[Patternist series|Patternist]] novels.<ref name="McCaffery"/> Happily ignorant of the obstacles that a black female writer could encounter,<ref name=Belle>Belle, Dixie-Anne. "Butler, Octavia Estelle (1947–2005)." ''Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture''. Ed. Carole Boyce Davies. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2008. 235–236.</ref> she became unsure of herself for the first time at the age of 13, when her well-intentioned aunt Hazel conveyed the realities of segregation in five words: "Honey ... Negroes can't be writers." Nevertheless, Butler persevered in her desire to publish a story, even asking her junior high school science teacher, Mr. Pfaff, to type the first manuscript she submitted to a science fiction magazine.<ref name="PosObs"/><ref name=Logan>Logan, Robert W. "Butler, Octavia E." ''Black Women in America: A Historical Encyclopedia'', 2nd ed. Ed. Darlene Clark Hine. Oxford: Oxford U P, 2005.</ref> After graduating from [[John Muir High School]] in 1965, Butler worked during the day and attended [[Pasadena City College]] (PCC) at night.<ref name="Logan"/> As a freshman at PCC, she won a college-wide short story contest, earning her first income ($15) as a writer.<ref name=PosObs /> She also got the "germ of the idea" for what would become her best-selling novel, ''[[Kindred (novel)|Kindred]]'', when a young African American classmate involved in the [[Black Power|Black Power Movement]] loudly criticized previous generations of African Americans for being subservient to whites. As she explained in later interviews, the young man's remarks instigated her to respond with a story that would give historical context to that shameful subservience so that it could be understood as silent but courageous survival.<ref name="Rowell"/><ref name=See>See, Lisa. "PW Interviews: Octavia E. Butler." ''Publishers Weekly''. December 13, 1993.</ref> In 1968, Butler graduated from PCC with an associate of arts degree with a focus in History.<ref name=Gant /><ref name=Pfeiffer /> == Rise to success == Even though Butler's mother wanted her to become a secretary with a steady income,<ref name=Rowell /> Butler continued to work at a series of temporary jobs, preferring the kind of mindless work that would allow her to get up at two or three in the morning to write. Success continued to elude her, as an absence of useful criticism led her to style her stories after the white-and-male-dominated science fiction she had grown up reading.<ref name=EAAW /><ref name=PosObs /> She enrolled at [[California State University, Los Angeles]], but then switched to taking writing courses through [[UCLA]] Extension. During the Open Door Workshop of the [[Writers Guild of America|Screenwriters' Guild of America]], West, a program designed to mentor minority writers, her writing impressed one of the teachers, noted science-fiction writer [[Harlan Ellison]]. He encouraged her to attend the six-week [[Clarion Workshop|Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop]] in [[Clarion, Pennsylvania]]. There, Butler met the writer and later longtime friend [[Samuel R. Delany]].<ref>{{cite news | last= Davis | first=Marcia | url= http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/27/AR2006022701585_pf.html | title=Octavia Butler, A Lonely, Bright Star Of the Sci-Fi Universe | work=Washington Post' | date=February 28, 2006}}</ref> She also sold her first stories: "[[Child Finder]]" to Ellison, for his anthology ''[[The Last Dangerous Visions]]'' (still unpublished), and [[Crossover (short story)|"Crossover"]] to Robin Scott Wilson, the director of Clarion, who published it in the 1971 Clarion anthology.<ref name="Gant" /><ref name="Pfeiffer" /><ref name="Logan"/> For the next five years, Butler worked on the series of novels that later become known as the [[Patternist series]]: ''[[Patternmaster]]'' (1976), ''[[Mind of My Mind]]'' (1977), and ''Survivor'' (1978). In 1978, she was finally able to stop working at temporary jobs and live on her writing.<ref name=Pfeiffer /> She took a break from the Patternist series to research and write ''[[Kindred (novel)|Kindred]]'' (1979), and then finished the series with ''Wild Seed'' (1980) and ''[[Clay's Ark]]'' (1984). Butler's rise to prominence began in 1984 when "[[Speech Sounds]]" won the [[Hugo Award]] for Short Story and, a year later, ''[[Bloodchild]]'' won the Hugo Award, the [[Locus Award]], and the ''Science Fiction Chronicle'' Reader Award for Best Novelette. In the meantime, Butler traveled to the [[Amazon rainforest|Amazon]] rainforest and the Andes to do research for what would become the ''Xenogenesis'' trilogy: ''Dawn'' (1987), ''Adulthood Rites'' (1988), and ''Imago ''(1989).<ref name=Pfeiffer /> These stories were republished in 2000 as the collection ''[[Lilith's Brood]]. During the 1990s, Butler worked on the novels that solidified her fame as a writer: ''[[Parable of the Sower (novel)|Parable of the Sower]]'' (1993) and ''[[Parable of the Talents (novel)|Parable of the Talents]]'' (1998). In 1995, she became the first science-fiction writer to be awarded a [[John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation]] [[MacArthur Fellows Program|fellowship]], an award that came with a prize of $295,000.<ref name="Holden">Holden, Rebecca J, and Nisi Shawl. ''Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler''. Seattle, WA : Aqueduct Press, 2013.</ref><ref>Fry, Joan. "Congratulations! You've Just Won $295,000: An Interview with Octavia Butler." ''Poets & Writers Magazine'' (March/April 1997).</ref> {{quote box | align = right | width = 25em | quote = "Who am I? I am a forty-seven-year-old writer who can remember being a ten-year-old writer and who expects someday to be an eighty-year-old writer. I am also comfortably asocial—a hermit.... A pessimist if I'm not careful, a feminist, a Black, a former Baptist, an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive." | salign = left | source = Octavia E. Butler, reading the self-penned description of herself included in ''Parable of the Sower'' during a 1994 interview with Jelani Cobb. }} In 1999, after her mother's death, Butler moved to [[Lake Forest Park, Washington]]. ''The Parable of the Talents'' had won the Science Fiction Writers of America's [[Nebula Award]] for Best Science Novel and she had plans for four more Parable novels: ''Parable of the Trickster'', ''Parable of the Teacher'', ''Parable of Chaos'', and ''Parable of Clay''. However, after several failed attempts to begin ''The Parable of the Trickster'', she decided to stop work in the series.<ref name=Mehaffy>Butler, Octavia E. "'Radio Imagination': Octavia Butler on the Politics of Narrative Embodiment." Interview with Marilyn Mehaffy and Ana Louise Keating. ''MELUS'' 26.1 (2001): 45–76. [[JSTOR]]&nbsp;[http://www.jstor.org/stable/3185496 3185496]. [[doi:10.2307/3185496]]</ref> In later interviews, Butler explained that the research and writing of the Parable novels had overwhelmed and depressed her, so she had shifted to composing something "lightweight" and "fun" instead. This became her last book, the science-fiction vampire novel ''[[Fledgling (novel)|Fledgling]]'' (2005).<ref>Butler, Octavia. [http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/11/158201 "Science Fiction Writer Octavia Butler on Race, Global Warming, and Religion."] Interview by [[Juan Gonzalez (journalist)|Juan Gonzalez]] and [[Amy Goodman]]. ''Democracy Now!'' 11 November 2005.</ref> ==Writing career== ===Early stories, Patternist series, and ''Kindred'': 1971–1984=== Butler's first work published was ''Crossover'' in the 1971 Clarion Workshop anthology. She also sold the short story ''Childfinder'' to Harlan Ellison for the anthology ''[[The Last Dangerous Visions]]''. "I thought I was on my way as a writer," Butler recalled in her short fiction collection ''[[Bloodchild and Other Stories]]''. "In fact, I had five more years of rejection slips and horrible little jobs ahead of me before I sold another word."<ref name=ACO>Butler, Octavia E. ''Afterword to Crossover." ''Bloodchild and Other Stories''. New York, NY: Seven Stories Press. 1996. p.&nbsp;120.</ref> Starting in 1974, Butler worked on a series of novels that would later be collected as the [[Patternist series]], which depicts the transformation of humanity into three genetic groups: the dominant Patternists, humans who have been bred with heightened telepathic powers and are bound to the Patternmaster via a psionic chain; their enemies the Clayarks, disease-mutated animal-like superhumans; and the Mutes, ordinary humans bonded to the Patternists.<ref name=Mehaffy /> The first novel, ''[[Patternist series#Patternmaster (1976)|Patternmaster]]'' (1976), eventually became the last installment in the series' internal chronology. Set in the distant future, it tells of the coming-of-age of Teray, a young Patternist who fights for position within Patternist society and eventually for the role of Patternmaster.<ref name=Holden /> Next came ''[[Mind of My Mind]]'' (1977), a prequel to Patternmaster set in the twentieth century. The story follows the development of Mary, the creator of the psionic chain and the first Patternmaster to bind all Patternists, and her inevitable struggle for power with her father Doro, a parapsychological vampire who seeks to retain control over the psionic children he has bred over the centuries.<ref name=Gant /><ref name=Pfeiffer /> {{quote box | align = left | width = 20em | quote = To survive,<br />Know the past.<br />Let it touch you.<br />Then let<br />The past<br />Go. | salign = left | source =From "Earthseed: The Books of the Living," ''Parable of the Talents''. }}The third book of the series, ''[[Survivor (Octavia Butler novel)|Survivor]]'', was published in 1978. The titular survivor is Alanna, the adopted child of the Missionaries, fundamentalist Christians who have traveled to another planet to escape Patternist control and Clayark infection. Captured by a local tribe called the Tehkohn, Alanna learns their language and adopts their customs, knowledge which she then uses to help the Missionaries avoid bondage and assimilation into a rival tribe that opposes the Tehkohn.<ref name=Holden /><ref name=Bogstad>Bogstad, Janice. "Octavia E. Butler and Power Relations." ''Janus'' 4.4 (1978– 79): 28–31.</ref> After ''Survivor'', Butler took a break from the Patternist series to write what would become her best-selling novel, ''[[Kindred (novel)|Kindred]]'' (1979) as well as the short story "Near of Kin" (1979).<ref name=Holden /> In ''Kindred'', Dana, an African American woman, is transported from 1976 Los Angeles to early nineteenth century Maryland. She meets her ancestors: Rufus, a white slave holder, and Alice, a black freewoman forced into slavery later in life. In "Near of Kin" the protagonist discovers a taboo relationship in her family as she goes through her mother's things after her death.<ref name=Holden /> In 1980, Butler published the fourth book of the Patternist series, ''[[Wild Seed (novel)|Wild Seed]]'', whose narrative became the series' origin story. Set in Africa and America during the seventeenth century, ''Wild Seed'' traces the struggle between the four-thousand-year-old parapsychological vampire Doro and his "wild" child and bride, the three-hundred-year-old shapeshifter and healer Anyanwu. Doro, who has bred psionic children for centuries, deceives Anyanwu into becoming one of his breeders, but she eventually escapes and uses her gifts to create communities that rival Doro's. When Doro finally tracks her down, Anyanwu, tired by decades of escaping or fighting Doro, decides to commit suicide, forcing him to admit his need for her.<ref name=Gant /><ref name=Pfeiffer /><ref name=Holden /> In 1983, Butler published "Speech Sounds," a story set in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles where a pandemic has caused most humans to lose their ability to read, speak, or write. For many, this impairment is accompanied by uncontrollable feelings of jealousy, resentment, and rage. "Speech Sounds" received the 1984 [[Hugo Award for Best Short Story]].<ref name=Holden /> In 1984, Butler released the last book of the Patternmaster series, ''[[Clay's Ark]]''. Set in the Mojave Desert, it focuses on a colony of humans infected by an extraterrestrial microorganism brought to Earth by the one surviving astronaut of the spaceship Clay's Ark. As the microorganism compels them to spread it, they kidnap ordinary people to infect them and, in the case of women, give birth to the mutant, [[sphinx]]-like children who will be the first members of the Clayark race.<ref name=Gant /> ===''Bloodchild'' and the Xenogenesis trilogy: 1984–1989=== Butler followed ''Clay's Ark'' with the critically acclaimed short story "Bloodchild" (1984). Set on an alien planet, it depicts the complex relationship between human refugees and the insect-like aliens who keep them in a preserve to protect them, but also to use them as hosts for breeding their young. Sometimes called Butler's "pregnant man story," "Bloodchild" won the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards, and the Science Fiction Chronicle Reader Award.<ref name=Holden /> Three years later, Butler published ''Dawn'', the first installment of what would become known as the [[Lilith's Brood|Xenogenesis trilogy]]. The series examines the theme of alienation by creating situations in which humans are forced to coexist with other species to survive and extends Butler's recurring exploration of genetically-altered, hybrid individuals and communities.<ref name=Gant /><ref name= Mehaffy /> In ''Dawn'', protagonist Lilith Iyapo finds herself in a spaceship after surviving a nuclear apocalypse that destroys Earth. Saved by the [[Oankali]] aliens, the human survivors must combine their DNA with an ooloi, the Oankali's third sex, in order to create a new race that eliminates a self-destructive flaw in humans—their aggressive hierarchical tendencies.<ref name=Holden /> Butler followed Dawn with "[[The Evening and the Morning and the Night]]" (1987), a story about how certain female sufferers of "Duryea-Gode Disease," a genetic disorder which causes [[dissociative state]]s, obsessive self-mutilation, and violent psychosis, are able to control others afflicted with the disease.<ref name=Holden /> ''Adulthood Rites'' (1988) and ''Imago'' (1989) the second and the third books in the Xenogenesis trilogy, focus on the predatory and prideful tendencies that affect human evolution, as humans now revolt against Lilith's Oankali-engineered progeny. Set thirty years after humanity's return to Earth, ''Adulthood Rites'' centers on the kidnapping of Lilith's part-human, part alien child, Akin, by a human-only group who are against the Oankali. Akin learns about both aspects of his identity through his life with the humans as well as the Akjai. The Oankali-only group becomes their mediator, and ultimately creates a human-only colony in Mars.<ref name=Holden /> In ''Imago'', the Oankali create a third species more powerful than themselves: the shape-shifting healer Jodahs, a human-Oankali ooloi who must find suitable human male and female mates to survive its metamorphosis and finds them in the most unexpected of places, in a village of renegade humans.<ref name=Gant /><ref name=Pfeiffer /> ===The Parable series: 1993–1998=== In the mid-1990s, Butler published two novels later designated as the Parable (or Earthseed) series. The books depict the struggle of the Earthseed community to survive the socioeconomic and political collapse of twenty-first century America due to poor environmental stewardship, corporate greed, and the growing gap between the wealthy and the poor.<ref name=Holden /><ref name=Omry>Omry, Keren. "''Octavia Butler (1947–2006)''." ''Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers''. Ed. Yolanda Williams Page. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2007. 64–70.</ref> The books propose alternate philosophical views and religious interventions as solutions to such dilemmas.<ref name=Gant /> The first book in the series, ''[[Parable of the Sower (novel)|Parable of the Sower]]'' (1993), features a fifteen-year-old protagonist named Lauren Oya Olamina, and is set in a dystopian California in the 2020s. Lauren, who suffers from a syndrome causing her to literally feel any physical pain she witnesses, decides to escape the corruption and corporatization of her community of Robledo. She forms a new belief system, Earthseed, in order to prepare for the future of the human race on another planet. Recruiting members of varying social backgrounds, Lauren relocates her new group to Northern California, naming her new community "Earthseed".<ref name=Holden /> Her 1998 follow-up novel, ''[[Parable of the Talents (novel)|Parable of the Talents]]'', is set sometime after Lauren's death and is told through the excerpts of Lauren's journals as framed by the commentary of her estranged daughter, Larkin.<ref name=Gant /> It details the takeover of Earthseed by right-wing fundamentalist Christians, Lauren's attempts to survive their religious "re-education", and the final triumph of Earthseed as a community and a doctrine.<ref name=Holden /><ref name=Allbery>Allbery, Russ. [http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/0-446-61038-0.html "''Review of Parable of the Talents''"]. ''Eyrie.org''. 5 April 2006.</ref> In between her Earthseed novels, Butler published the collection ''[[Bloodchild and Other Stories]]'' (1995), which includes the short stories "Bloodchild", "The Evening and the Morning and the Night", "Near of Kin", "Speech Sounds", and "Crossover", as well as the non-fiction pieces "Positive Obsession" and ''"Furor Scribendi"''.<ref name=Calvin>Calvin, Ritch. "''An Octavia E. Butler Bibliography (1976–2008)''." ''Utopian Studies'' 19.3 (2008): 485–516. [[JSTOR]]&nbsp;[http://www.jstor.org/stable/20719922 20719922]</ref> ===Late stories and ''Fledgling'': 2003–2005=== After several years of suffering from writer's block, Butler published the short stories "Amnesty" (2003) and "The Book of Martha" (2003), and her second standalone novel, ''Fledgling'' (2005). Both short stories focus on how impossible conditions force an ordinary woman to make a distressing choice.<ref name=Curtis>Curtis, Claire P. "Theorizing Fear: Octavia Butler and The Realist Utopia." ''Utopian Studies'' 19.3 (2008): 411–431. [[JSTOR]]&nbsp;[http://www.jstor.org/stable/20719919 20719919]</ref> In "Amnesty", an alien abductee recounts her painful abuse at the hand of the unwitting aliens, and upon her release, by humans, and explains why she chose to work as a translator for the aliens now that the Earth's economy is in a deep depression. In "The Book of Martha", God asks a middle-aged African American novelist to make one important change to fix humanity's destructive ways. Martha's choice—to make humans have vivid and satisfying dreams—means that she will no longer be able to do what she loves, writing fiction.<ref name=Holden /> These two stories were added to the 2005 edition of ''Bloodchild and Other Stories''.<ref name=Holden /> Butler's last publication during her lifetime was ''[[Fledgling (novel)|Fledgling]]'', a novel exploring the culture of a vampire community living in mutualistic symbiosis with humans.<ref name=EAAW /> Set on the West Coast, it tells of the coming-of-age of a young female hybrid vampire whose species is called Ina. The only survivor of a vicious attack on her families that left her an amnesiac, she must seek justice for her dead, build a new family, and relearn how to be Ina.<ref name=Holden /> Butler bequeathed her papers including manuscripts, correspondence, school papers, notebooks, and photographs to the [[Huntington Library]].<ref name="papers">{{cite web|title=Octavia E. Butler Papers|url=http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8hm5br8/|website=Online Archives of California | accessdate = January 11, 2017}}</ref> ==Themes== === The critique of present-day hierarchies === In multiple interviews and essays, Butler explained her view of humanity as inherently flawed by an innate tendency towards hierarchical thinking which leads to intolerance, violence and, if not checked, the ultimate destruction of our species.<ref name=Gant /><ref name=Pfeiffer /><ref name=AEW>"Butler, Octavia E." ''American Ethnic Writers'', Revised ed. Vol. 1. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2009. 168–175.</ref> "Simple peck-order bullying", she wrote in her essay "A World without Racism,"<ref name=WWR>[http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/racism/010830.octaviabutleressay.html "A World without Racism."] ''NPR Weekend Edition Saturday''. 1 September 2001.</ref> "is only the beginning of the kind of hierarchical behavior that can lead to racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, classism, and all the other 'isms' that cause so much suffering in the world." Her stories, then, often replay humanity's domination of the weak by the strong as a type of parasitism.<ref name="AEW"/> These superior beings, whether aliens, vampires, superhuman, or a slave masters, find themselves defied by a protagonist who embodies difference, diversity, and change, so that, as John R. Pfeiffer notes "[i]n one sense [Butler's] fables are trials of solutions to the self-destructive condition in which she finds mankind."<ref name=Pfeiffer /> {{quote box | align = right | width = 20em | quote = Embrace diversity<br /> Unite--<br /> or be divided,<br /> robbed,<br /> ruled,<br /> killed<br /> By those who see you as prey.<br /> Embrace diversity<br /> Or be destroyed. | salign = left | source =From "Earthseed: The Books of the Living," ''Parable of the Sower''. }} === The remaking of the human === In his essay on the sociobiological backgrounds of Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy, J. Adam Johns describes how Butler's narratives counteract the death drive behind the hierarchical impulse with an innate love of life (biophilia), particularly different, strange life.<ref name=Johns>Johns, J. Adam. "Becoming Medusa: Octavia Butler's ''Lilith's Brood'' and Sociobiology." ''Science Fiction Studies'' 37.3 (2010): 382–400.</ref> Specifically, Butler's stories feature gene manipulation, interbreeding, miscegenation, symbiosis, mutation, alien contact, non-consensual sex, contamination, and other forms of hybridity as the means to correct the sociobiological causes of hierarchical violence.<ref name=Ferreira>Ferreira, Maria Aline. "Symbiotic Bodies and Evolutionary Tropes in the Work of Octavia Butler." ''Science Fiction Studies'' 37. 3 (November 2010): 401–415.</ref> As De Witt Douglas Kilgore and Ranu Samantrai note, "[i]n [Butler's] narratives the undoing of the human body is both literal and metaphorical, for it signifies the profound changes necessary to shape a world not organized by hierarchical violence."<ref name=Kilgore>Kilgore, De Witt Douglas and Ranu Samantrai. "A Memorial to Octavia E. Butler." ''Science Fiction Studies'' 37.3 (November 2010): 353–361. [[JSTOR]]&nbsp;[http://www.jstor.org/stable/25746438 25746438]</ref> The evolutionary maturity achieved by the bioengineered hybrid protagonist at the end of the story, then, signals the possible evolution of the dominant community in terms of tolerance, acceptance of diversity, and a desire to wield power responsibly.<ref name="AEW"/> === The survivor as hero === Butler's protagonists are disenfranchised individuals who endure, compromise, and embrace radical change in order to survive. As De Witt Douglas Kilgore and Ranu Samantrai note, her stories focus on minority characters whose historical background makes them already intimate with brutal violation and exploitation, and therefore the need to compromise to survive.<ref name="Kilgore"/> Even when endowed with extra abilities, these characters are forced to experience unprecedented physical, mental, and emotional distress and exclusion to ensure a minimal degree of agency and to prevent humanity from achieving self-destruction.<ref name=Gant /><ref name="Belle"/> In many stories, their acts of courage become acts of understanding, and in some cases, love, as they reach a crucial compromise with those in power.<ref name="AEW"/> Ultimately, Butler's focus on disenfranchised characters serves to illustrate both the historical exploitation of minorities and how the resolve of one such exploited individual may bring on critical change.<ref name=Gant /> === The creation of alternative communities === Butler's stories feature mixed communities founded by African protagonists and populated by diverse, if similar-minded individuals. Members may be humans of African, European, or Asian descent, extraterrestrial (such as the N'Tlic in [[Bloodchild and Other Stories|"Bloodchild"]]), from a different species (such as the vampiric Ina in [[Fledgling (novel)|''Fledgling'')]], and cross-species (such as the human-Oankali Akin and Jodahs in the [[Lilith's Brood|''Xenogenesis trilogy'')]]. In some stories, the community's hybridity results in a flexible view of sexuality and gender (for instance, the polyamorous extended families in [[Fledgling (novel)|''Fledgling'')]]. Thus, Butler creates bonds between groups that are generally considered to be separate and unrelated, and suggests hybridity as "the potential root of good family and blessed community life."<ref name="Kilgore"/> ==== Relationship to Afrofuturism ==== Butler's work has been associated with the genre of [[Afrofuturism]],<ref name=Sinker>Sinker, Mark. "Loving the Alien." ''The Wire'' 96 (February 1992): 30–32.</ref> a term coined by Mark Dery to describe "speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of 20th-century technoculture."<ref name=Bould>Bould, Mark. "The Ships Landed Long Ago: Afrofuturism and Black SF." ''Science Fiction Studies'' 34.2 (July 2007): 177–186. [[JSTOR]]&nbsp;[http://www.jstor.org/stable/4241520 4241520]</ref> Some critics, however, have noted that while Butler's protagonists are of African descent, the communities they create are multi-ethnic and, sometimes, multi-species. As De Witt Douglas Kilgore and Ranu Samantrai explain in their 2010 memorial to Butler, while Butler does offer "an afro-centric sensibility at the core of narratives," her "insistence on hybridity beyond the point of discomfort" exceeds the tenets of both black cultural nationalism and of "white-dominated" liberal pluralism.<ref name="Kilgore"/> == Influence== In interviews with Charles Rowell and Randall Kenan, Butler credited the struggles of her working-class mother as an important influence on her writing.<ref name=Rowell /><ref name="Kenan">Butler, Octavia E. "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler." Randall Kenan. ''Callaloo'' 14.2 (1991): 495–504. [[JSTOR]]&nbsp;[http://www.jstor.org/stable/2931654 2931654]. [[doi:10.2307/2931654]]</ref> Because Butler's mother received little formal education herself, she made sure that young Butler was given the opportunity to learn by bringing her reading materials that her white employers threw away, from magazines to advanced books.<ref name=PosObs /> She also encouraged Butler to write. She bought her daughter her first typewriter when she was ten years old, and, seeing her hard at work on a story, casually remarked that maybe one day she could become a writer, causing Butler to realize that it was possible to make a living as an author.<ref name=Gant /> A decade later, Mrs. Butler would pay more than a month's rent to have an agent review her daughter's work.<ref name=PosObs /> She also provided Butler with the money she had been saving for dental work to pay for Butler's scholarship so she could attend the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop, where Butler sold her first two stories.<ref name=Holden /> A second person to play an influential role in Butler's work was American writer [[Harlan Ellison]]. As a teacher at the Open Door Workshop of the Screen Writers Guild of America, he gave Butler her first honest and constructive criticism on her writing after years of lukewarm responses from composition teachers and baffling rejections from publishers.<ref name="Belle"/> Impressed by her work, Ellison suggested she attend the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop, and even contributed $100 towards her application fee. As the years passed, Ellison's mentorship became a close friendship.<ref name=Holden /> == Point of view == Butler began reading science fiction at a young age, but quickly became disenchanted by the genre's unimaginative portrayal of ethnicity and class as well as by its lack of noteworthy female protagonists.<ref>Smith Foster, Frances. "Octavia Butler's Black Female Future Fiction." ''Extrapolation'' 23.1 (1982): 37–49.</ref> She then set to correct those gaps by, as De Witt Douglas Kilgore and Ranu Samantrai point out, "choosing to write self-consciously as an African-American woman marked by a particular history"<ref name="Kilgore"/> —what Butler termed as "writing myself in".<ref name="obit" /> Butler's stories, therefore, are usually written from the perspective of a marginalized black woman whose difference from the dominant agents increases her potential for reconfiguring the future of her society.<ref name="Kilgore"/> whats up == Audience == Publishers and critics have labelled Butler's work as science fiction.<ref name=Gant /> While Butler enjoyed the genre deeply, calling it "potentially the freest genre in existence",<ref name=Beal>Butler, Octavia. "''Black Scholar'' Interview with Octavia Butler: Black Women and the Science Fiction Genre." Frances M. Beal. ''Black Scholar'' (Mar/Apr. 1986): 14–18. [[JSTOR]]&nbsp;[http://www.jstor.org/stable/41067255 41067255]</ref> she resisted being branded a genre writer.<ref name="Logan"/> Many critics have pointed out that her narratives have drawn attention of people from varied ethnic and cultural backgrounds.<ref name="Belle"/> She claimed to have three loyal audiences: black readers, science-fiction fans, and feminists.<ref name="Kilgore"/> In Kim Stanley Robinson's science fiction novel titled ''New York 2140,'' published in 2017, the character named Gen Octaviasdottir is an homage and show of respect and a shout out to SF pioneer Octavia Butler. In Icelandic naming traditions, a daughter is often called Josephsdottir (daughter) or Mariasdottir to signify that they are the daughter of the father or the mother. ==Interviews== [[Charlie Rose]] interviewed Octavia Butler in 2000 soon after the award of a MacArthur Fellowship. The highlights are probing questions that arise out of Butler's personal life narrative and her interest in becoming not only a writer, but a writer of science fiction. Rose asked, "What then is central to what you want to say about race?" Butler's response was, "''Do'' I want to say something central about race? Aside from, 'Hey we're here!'?" This points to an essential claim for Butler that the world of science fiction is a world of possibilities, and although race is an innate element, it is embedded in the narrative, not forced upon it.<ref>[http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/3662 "Charlie Rose: A Conversation with Octavia Butler"], 2000.</ref> In an interview by Randall Kenan, Octavia E. Butler discusses how her life experiences as a child shaped most of her thinking. As a writer, Butler was able to use her writing as a vehicle to critique history under the lenses of feminism. In the interview, she discusses the research that had to be done in order to write her bestselling novel, Kindred. Most of it is based on visiting libraries as well as historic landmarks with respect to what she is investigating. Butler admits that she writes science fiction because she does not want her work to be labeled or used as a marketing tool. She wants the readers to be genuinely interested in her work and the story she provides, but at the same time she fears that people will not read her work because of the "science fiction" label that they have.<ref name="Kenan"/> In an interview with Joshunda Sanders, Butler commented on the space race and its influence on her work. She noted, "I think of the space race as a way of having a nuclear war without having one." She the claimed that Ronald Reagan believed a nuclear war against the Soviet Union was winnable. Butler admitted to being very confused by this idea, and said that it contributed to her idea for the Xenogenesis books. She said "there must be something basic, something really genetically wrong with us if we're falling for this stuff." Butler then commented on how she felt a real fear about nuclear war during the Cold War and that these ideas had a real influence on some of her early works.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/ac04/obutler.html|title=Interview with Octavia Butler|website=In Motion Magazine|first=Joshunda|last=Sanders|date=March 14, 2004}}</ref> ==Adaptations== ''Parable of the Sower'' was adapted as ''Parable of the Sower: The Concert Version'', a work-in-progress opera written by American folk/blues musician [[Toshi Reagon]] in collaboration with her mother, singer and composer [[Bernice Johnson Reagon]]. The adaptation's libretto and musical score combine African-American [[Spiritual (music)|spirituals]], [[Soul music|soul]], [[rock and roll]], and [[folk music]] into rounds to be performed by singers sitting in a circle. It was performed as part of [[The Public Theater]]'s 2015 [[Under the Radar Festival]] in New York City.<ref>Moon, Grace. [http://velvetparkmedia.com/blogs/toshi-reagons-parable-0 "Toshi Reagon's Parable."] ''Velvetpark: Art, Thought and Culture''. 14 January 2015.</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/theater/show/311574/Under-the-Radar-2015-Octavia-E-Butler-s-Parable-of-the-Sower-The-Concert-Version/overview "Under the Radar 2015: Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower: The Concert Version"] ''The New York Times.'' 18 January 2015.</ref><ref>[http://vimeo.com/116803131 "BK Live 1/14/15: Toshi Reagon."] ''Brooklyn Independent Media''. 16 January 2015.</ref> ''Kindred'' was adapted as a graphic novel by author [[Damien Duffy]] and artist [[John Jennings]]. The adaptation was published by [[Abrams ComicsArts]] on January 10, 2017.<ref>http://www.abramsbooks.com/product/kindred-a-graphic-novel-adaptation_9781419709470/ Retrieved March 11, 2017 #artandfeminism</ref> To visually differentiate the time periods in which Butler set the story, Jennings used muted colors for the present and vibrant ones for the past to demonstrate how the remnants and relevance of slavery still with us.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/02/10/514397472/the-joy-and-fear-of-making-kindred-into-a-graphic-novel|title=The Joy (And Fear) Of Making 'Kindred' Into A Graphic Novel|work=NPR.org|access-date=2017-03-11|language=en}}</ref> The graphic novel adaption debuted as number one ''New York Times'' hard-cover graphic book bestseller on January 29, 2017.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/hardcover-graphic-books/|title=Hardcover Graphic Books - Best Sellers - The New York Times|access-date=2017-03-11}}</ref> ==Awards and honors== ''Winner'': *2012: Solstice Award<ref>[http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/butler_octavia "Butler, Octavia."] ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.'' Ed. John Clute, David Langford, Peter Nicholls and Graham Sleight. London: Gollancz. 3 April 2015.</ref> *2010: Inducted by the [[EMP Museum#Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame|Science Fiction Hall of Fame]]<ref name=sfhof2010/> *2005: Langston Hughes Medal of The City College<ref name=HoldenShawltime>"Octavia E. Butler Biographical Timeline." ''Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler''. Ed. Rebecca J. Holden and Nisi Shawl. Aqueduct Press, 2013. ISBN 1619760371 (10) ISBN 978-1619760370 (13)</ref> *2000: Lifetime Achievement Award in Writing from the [[PEN American Center]]<ref name=HoldenShawltime /> *1999: [[Nebula Award for Best Novel]] – ''[[Parable of the Talents (novel)|Parable of the Talents]]''<ref name=SFAwards/> *1995: [[John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation]] [[MacArthur Fellows Program|"Genius" Grant]]<ref name="HoldenShawltime"/> *1988: ''Science Fiction Chronicle'' Award for Best Novelette – "The Evening and the Morning and the Night"<ref name="HoldenShawltime"/> * 1985: [[Locus Award for Best Novelette]] – "Bloodchild"<ref name=OffSite>[http://octaviabutler.org/bio/ "Octavia E. Butler-About."] [http://octaviabutler.org Octavia E. Butler Official Website.]</ref> *1985: [[Hugo Award for Best Novelette]] – "Bloodchild"<ref name=SFAwards/> *1985: ''Science Fiction Chronicle'' Award for Best Novelette – "Bloodchild"<ref>[http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/SfcWinsByYear.html "''Science Fiction Chronicle'' Reader Awards Winners by Year." ''The Locus Index to SF Awards''. 2010–2011.]</ref> *1984: [[Nebula Award for Best Novelette]] – "Bloodchild"<ref name=SFAwards/> *1984: [[Hugo Award for Best Short Story]] – "[[Speech Sounds]]"<ref name=SFAwards/> *1980: Creative Arts Award, L.A. YWCA<ref name="OffSite"/> ''Nominated'': *1994: [[Nebula Award for Best Novel]] – ''[[Parable of the Sower (novel)|Parable of the Sower]]'' *1987: [[Nebula Award for Best Novelette]] – "[[The Evening and the Morning and the Night]]" *1967: Fifth Place, [[Writer's Digest Short Story Contest]] ==Critical reception== Most critics praise Butler on her unflinching exposition of human flaws, which she depicts with striking realism. ''The New York Times'' regarded her novels as "evocative" if "often troubling" explorations of "far-reaching issues of race, sex, power".<ref name="obit" /> ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' called her examination of humanity "clear-headed and brutally unsentimental"{{citation needed|date=March 2016}} and ''Village Voice'''s Dorothy Allison described her as "writing the most detailed social criticism" where "the hard edge of cruelty, violence, and domination is described in stark detail."{{citation needed|date=March 2016}} ''Locus'' regarded her as "one of those authors who pay serious attention to the way human beings actually work together and against each other, and she does so with extraordinary plausibility."{{citation needed|date=March 2016}} ''Houston Post'' ranked her "among the best SF writers, blessed with a mind capable of conceiving complicated futuristic situations that shed considerable light on our current affairs."{{citation needed|date=March 2016}} Scholars, on the other hand, focus on Butler's choice to write from the point of view of marginal characters and communities and thus "expanded SF to reflect the experiences and expertise of the disenfranchised."<ref name="Kilgore"/> While surveying Butler's novels, critic Burton Raffel noted how race and gender influence her writing: "I do not think any of these eight books could have been written by a man, as they most emphatically were not, nor, with the single exception of her first book, ''Pattern-Master'' (1976), are likely to have been written, as they most emphatically were, by anyone but an African American."{{citation needed|date=March 2016}} Robert Crossley commended how Butler's "feminist aesthetic" works to expose sexual, racial, and cultural chauvinisms because it is "enriched by a historical consciousness that shapes the depiction of enslavement both in the real past and in imaginary pasts and futures."<ref name="Kilgore"/> Butler has been praised widely for her spare yet vivid style, with ''Washington Post Book World'' calling her craftsmanship "superb".{{citation needed|date=March 2016}} Burton Raffel regards her prose as "carefully, expertly crafted" and "crystalline, at its best, sensuous, sensitive, exact not in the least directed at calling attention to itself."<ref name=Raffel>Raffel, Burton. "Genre to the Rear, Race and Gender to the Fore: The Novels of Octavia E. Butler." ''Literary Review'' 38.3. (Spring 1995): 454–61.</ref> == Death == During her last years, Butler struggled with writer's block and depression, partly caused by the side effects of medication for her high blood pressure.<ref name="Logan"/><ref name=BLC>{{cite book |chapter=Butler, Octavia 1947–2006 |title=Black Literature Criticism: Classic and Emerging Authors since 1950 |editor=Jelena O. Krstovic |edition=2nd |volume=Vol. 1 |location=Detroit |publisher=Gale |year=2008 |pages=244–258 |work=Gale Virtual Literature Collection |ISBN=9 781 41443 1703 |via=Google Books |url=https://books.google.com.au/books?id=dZchmwEACAAJ&dq=isbn:9781414431703}}</ref> She continued writing and taught at Clarion's Science Fiction Writers' Workshop regularly. In 2005, she was inducted into [[Chicago State University]]'s International Black Writers Hall of Fame.<ref name=EAAW /> Butler died outside of her home in [[Lake Forest Park, Washington]], on February 24, 2006, aged 58.<ref name="obit" /> Contemporary news accounts were inconsistent as to the cause of her death, with some reporting that she suffered a fatal stroke, while others indicated that she died of head injuries after falling and striking her head on her walkway. Another suggestion, backed by ''[[Locus (magazine)|Locus]]'' magazine, is that a stroke caused the fall and hence the head injuries.<ref name=locus-obit>{{cite journal |title=Obituaries |work=[[Locus (magazine)|Locus]] |ISSN=0047-4959 |issue=4.543 |volume=56}}</ref> After her death, the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship was established by the [[Carl Brandon Society]] to provide support to students of color to attend the [[Clarion West Writers Workshop]] and [[Clarion Workshop|Clarion Writers' Workshop]], descendants of the original Clarion Science Fiction Writers' Workshop where Butler had gotten her start 35 years before.<ref name=EAAW /><ref name=Scholarship>{{cite web |url=http://carlbrandon.org/butler-scholarship/ |title=Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship |publisher=[[Carl Brandon Society]] |year=2015 |accessdate=October 15, 2016}}</ref> ===Scholarship fund=== The Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship was established in Butler's memory in 2006 by the [[Carl Brandon Society]]. Its goal is to provide an annual scholarship to enable writers of color to attend the [http://www.clarionwest.org Clarion West Writers Workshop] and [[Clarion Workshop|Clarion Writers' Workshop]], descendants of the original Clarion Science Fiction Writers' Workshop in Clarion, Pennsylvania, where Butler got her start. The first scholarships were awarded in 2007.<ref name=Scholarship/> ==Selected works== === Series === ''[[Patternist series]]'' :* ''[[Patternmaster]]'' (Doubleday 1976; Avon 1979; Warner 1995) :* ''[[Mind of My Mind]]'' (Doubleday 1977; Warner 1994) :* ''[[Survivor (Octavia Butler novel)|Survivor]]'' (Doubleday 1978) :* ''[[Wild Seed (Octavia Butler novel)|Wild Seed]]'' (Doubleday 1980; Warner 1988, 2001) :* ''[[Clay's Ark]]'' (St. Martin's Press 1984; Ace Books 1985; Warner 1996) :* ''Seed to Harvest'' (Grand Central Publishing 2007; omnibus excluding ''Survivor'') ''[[Xenogenesis series]]'' :* ''Dawn'' (Warner 1987, 1989, 1997) :* ''Adulthood Rites'' (Warner 1988, 1977) :* ''Imago'' (Warner 1989, 1997) :* ''Xenogenesis'' (Guild America Books 1989; omnibus) :* ''Lilith's Brood'' (Warner 2000; omnibus) ''Parable series'' (also referred to as the ''Earthseed series'') :* ''[[Parable of the Sower (novel)|Parable of the Sower]]'' (Four Walls, Eight Windows 1993; Women's Press 1995; Warner 1995, 2000). :* ''[[Parable of the Talents (novel)|Parable of the Talents]]'' (Seven Stories Press 1998; Quality Paperback Book Club 1999; Women's Press 2000, 2001; Warner 2000, 2001) === Standalone novels === * ''[[Kindred (novel)|Kindred]]'' (Doubleday 1979; Beacon Press 1988, 2004). * ''[[Fledgling (novel)|Fledgling]]'' (Seven Stories Press 2005; Grand Central Publishing 2007). === Short story collections === *''[[Bloodchild and Other Stories]]'' (Four Walls, Eight Windows, 1995; [[Seven Stories Press]], 1996, 2005; second edition includes "Amnesty" and "The Book of Martha"). *''Unexpected Stories'' (2014, includes "A Necessary Being" and "Childfinder") === Essays and speeches === * "Birth of a Writer." ''Essence'' 20 (May 1989): 74+. Reprinted as "Positive Obsession" in ''Bloodchild and Other Stories''. *"Free Libraries: Are They Becoming Extinct?" ''Omni'' 15.10 (Aug. 1993): 4. *[http://web.mit.edu/m-i-t/articles/butler_talk_index.html "''Devil Girl from Mars'': Why I Write Science Fiction."] ''Media in Transition''. MIT 19 February 1998. Transcript 4 October 1998. * "[http://exittheapple.com/a-few-rules-for-predicting-the-future "Brave New Worlds: A Few Rules for Predicting the Future."] ''Essence'' 31.1 (May 2000): 164+. * [http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/racism/010830.octaviabutleressay.html "A World without Racism."] ''NPR Weekend Edition Saturday''. 1 September 2001. * [http://www.oprah.com/article/omagazine/aha/rys_omag_200205_aha "Eye Witness: "Butler's Aha! Moment."] ''O: The Oprah Magazine'' 3.5 (May 2002): 79–80. ==See also== {{Portal|Literature |Science fiction }} * [[Women in speculative fiction]] ==References== {{reflist |25em |refs= <ref name=isfdb> {{isfdb name |186}} ('''ISFDB'''). Retrieved 2013-04-12. Select a title to see its linked publication history and general information. Select a particular edition (title) for more data at that level, such as a front cover image or linked contents.</ref> <!-- some awards refs --> <ref name=SFAwards> [http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/NomLit21.html#728 "Butler, Octavia E."] ''The Locus Index to SF Awards: Index of Literary Nominees''. [[Locus Publications]]. Retrieved 2013-04-12.</ref> <ref name=sfhof2010> {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100325043342/http://www.empsfm.org/exhibitions/index.asp?categoryID=203 |date=March 25, 2010 |title="Science Fiction Hall of Fame" }}. [Quote: "EMP|SFM is proud to announce the 2010 Hall of Fame inductees:&nbsp;..."]. Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (''empsfm.org''). Archived 2010-03-25. Retrieved 2013-03-19.</ref> }} ==Further reading== ===Biographies=== * Becker, Jennifer. "[http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages/butlerOctavia.php Octavia Estelle Butler]". ''Voices From the Gaps''. Ed. Lauren Curtright. University of Minnesota, 21 Aug. 2004. * "Butler, Octavia 1947–2006". ''Black Literature Criticism: Classic and Emerging Authors since 1950''. Ed. Jelena O. Krstovic. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2008. 244–258. * Gates, Henry Louis Jr (ed.) "Octavia Butler". ''The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, 2nd Edition.'' New York: W.W. Norton and Co, 2004: 2515. * Geyh, Paula, Fred G. Leebron and Andrew Levy. "Octavia Butler". ''Postmodern American Fiction: A Norton Anthology.'' New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1998: 554–55. * Pfeiffer, John R. "Butler, Octavia Estelle (b. 1947)". ''Science Fiction Writers: Critical Studies of the Major Authors from the Early Nineteenth Century to the Present Day''. Ed. Richard Bleiler. 2nd ed. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999. 147–158. * Smalls, F. Romall, Arnold Markoe, (editor). "Octavia Estelle Butler". ''The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Volume 8''. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons/Gale, Cengage Learning, 2010: 65–66. ===Scholarship=== * Baccolini, Raffaella. "Gender and Genre in the Feminist Critical Dystopias of Katharine Burdekin, Margaret Atwood, and Octavia Butler". ''Future Females, the Next Generation: New Voices and Velocities in Feminist Science Fiction Criticism'', Marleen S. Barr (ed.). New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000: 13–34. * Bollinger, Laurel. "Placental Economy: Octavia Butler, Luce Irigaray, And Speculative Subjectivity". ''Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory'' 18.4 (2007): 325–352. [[doi:10.1080/10436920701708044]] * Canavan, Gerry. ''Octavia E. Butler''. University of Illinois Press, 2016. * [[Donna Haraway|Haraway, Donna]]. "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century" and "The Biopolitics of Postmodern Bodies: Constitutions of Self in Immune System Discourse". ''Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature''. New York: Routledge, 1991: 149–81, 203–30. * Holden, Rebecca J., "The High Costs of Cyborg Survival: Octavia Butler's ''Xenogenesis'' Trilogy". ''[[Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction]]'' 72 (1998): 49–56. *Holden, Rebecca J. and Nisi Shawl, eds. ''Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia Butler''. Seattle: Aqueduct, 2013. ISBN 1619760371 (10) ISBN 978-1619760370 (13). * [[John Lennard|Lennard, John]]. ''Octavia Butler: Xenogenesis / Lilith's Brood''. Tirril: Humanities-Ebooks, 2007. ISBN 978-1-84760-036-3 * — "Of Organelles: The Strange Determination of Octavia Butler". ''Of Modern Dragons and other essays on Genre Fiction''. Tirril: Humanities-Ebooks, 2007: 163–90. ISBN 978-1-84760-038-7 * Levecq, Christine, "Power and Repetition: Philosophies of (Literary) History in Octavia E. Butler's ''Kindred''". ''Contemporary Literature'' 41.3 (2000 Spring): 525–53. [[JSTOR]]&nbsp;[http://www.jstor.org/stable/1208895 1208895]. [[doi:10.2307/1208895]] * Luckhurst, Roger, "'Horror and Beauty in Rare Combination': The Miscegenate Fictions of Octavia Butler". ''Women: A Cultural Review'' 7.1 (1996): 28–38. [[doi:10.1080/09574049608578256]] * Melzer, Patricia, ''Alien Constructions: Science Fiction and Feminist Thought''. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-292-71307-9 * Omry, Keren, "A Cyborg Performance: Gender and Genre in Octavia Butler". ''Phoebe: Journal of Gender and Cultural Critiques''. 17.2 (2005 Fall): 45–60. * Ramirez, Catherine S. "Cyborg Feminism: The Science Fiction of Octavia Butler and Gloria Anzaldua". ''Reload: Rethinking Women and Cyberculture'', Mary Flanagan and Austin Booth (eds.). Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002: 374–402. * Ryan, Tim A. "You Shall See How a Slave Was Made a ''Woman'': The Development of the Contemporary Novel of Slavery, 1976–1987". ''Calls and Responses: The American Novel of Slavery since'' Gone with the Wind. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2008: 114–48. * Schwab, Gabriele. "Ethnographies of the Future: Personhood, Agency and Power in Octavia Butler's ''Xenogenesis''". ''Accelerating Possession'', William Maurer and Gabriele Schwab (eds.). New York: Columbia UP, 2006: 204–28. * Shaw, Heather. "[http://www.strangehorizons.com/2000/20001218/butler.shtml "Strange Bedfellows: Eugenics, Attraction, and Aversion in the Works of Octavia E. Butler]". ''Strange Horizons''. 18 December 2000. * Scott, Jonathan. "Octavia Butler and the Base for American Socialism". ''Socialism and Democracy'' 20.3 November 2006, 105–26. [[doi:10.1080/08854300600950269]] * Seewood, Andre. [http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/freeing-black-science-fiction-from-the-chains-of-race "Freeing (Black)Science Fiction From The Chains of Race"]. "Shadow and Act: On Cinema Of The African Diaspora", August 1, 2012 ''Indiewire.com'' * [[Joan Slonczewski|Slonczewski, Joan]], [http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/books/butler1.html "Octavia Butler's ''Xenogenesis'' Trilogy: A Biologist's Response"] * Zaki, Hoda M. "Utopia, Dystopia, and Ideology in the Science Fiction of Octavia Butler". ''Science-Fiction Studies'' 17.2 (1990): 239–51. [[JSTOR]]&nbsp;[http://www.jstor.org/stable/4239994 4239994] ===Interviews=== ====1970s–1980s==== * "Futurist Woman: Octavia Butler." By Veronica Mixon. ''Essence.'' 9 April 1979. pp.&nbsp;12,15. * "Interview with Octavia Butler." By Jeffrey Elliot. ''Thrust'' 12. Summer 1979. pp.&nbsp;19–22. * "Future Forum." ''Future Life'' 17. 1980. p.&nbsp;60. * "Sci-Fi Visions: An Interview with Octavia Butler." By Rosalie G. Harrison. ''Equal Opportunity Forum Magazine'' 8.2.1980. pp.&nbsp;30–34. * "Corn Chips Yield Grist for Her Mill." By Wayne Warga. ''Los Angeles Times.'' January 30, 1981. Sec. 5: 15. * "Science Fiction Writer Comes of Age." By Chico Norwood. ''Los Angeles Sentinel'' April 16, 1981. A5, Al5. * "The Science Fiction of Octavia Butler." By Carolyn S. Davidson. ''SagaU'' 2.1. 1981. p.&nbsp;35. * "Octavia Butler: A Wild Seed." By Bever-leigh Banfield. ''Hip'' 5.9. 1981. p.&nbsp;48 and following. * "''Black Scholar''&nbsp;Interview with Octavia Butler: Black Women and the Science Fiction Genre." By Frances M. Beal.&nbsp;''Black Scholar.'' 17.2. March–April 1986. pp.&nbsp;14–18. [[JSTOR]]&nbsp;[http://www.jstor.org/stable/41067255 41067255] * "Octavia E. Butler." By Charles Brown. ''Locus'' 21.10. October 1988. * "Otherworldly Vision." By S. McHenry. ''Essence'' 29.10. February 1989. p.&nbsp;80. * "Interview: Octavia Butler." By Claudia Peck. ''Skewed: The Magazine of Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror'' 1. pp.&nbsp;18–27. ====1990s==== * "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler." By Larry McCaffery and Jim McMenamin. ''Across the Wounded Galaxies: Interviews with Contemporary American Science Fiction Writers''. Ed. Larry McCaffery. 1990. ISBN 0252061403 (10) ISBN 978-0252061400 (13). pp.&nbsp;54–70. * "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler." By Randall Kenan. ''Callaloo'' 14.2. 1991.''' '''pp.&nbsp;495–505.&nbsp; [[JSTOR]]&nbsp;[http://www.jstor.org/stable/2931654 2931654]. [[doi:10.2307/2931654]] * "''PW'' Interviews." By Lisa See. ''Publishers Weekly'' 240. December 13, 1993. pp.&nbsp;50–51. * "Sci-Fi Tales from Octavia E. Butler." By H. Jerome Jackson. ''Crisis'' 101.3. April 1994. p.&nbsp;4. * "Interview with Octavia Butler." By Jelani Cobb. ''jelanicobb.com''. 1994. Reprinted in ''Conversations with Octavia Butler''. Ed. Conseula Francis. Jackson, MS: UP of Mississippi, 2010. 49–64. * "[http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/interviews/potts70interview.htm 'We Keep on Playing the Same Record': A Conversation with Octavia E. Butler]." By Stephen W. Potts. ''Science Fiction Studies'' 23.3. November 1996. pp.&nbsp;331–338. [[JSTOR]]&nbsp;[http://www.jstor.org/stable/4240538 4240538] * "Octavia E. Butler Mouths Off!" By Tasha Kelly and Jan Berrien Berends. ''Terra Incognita.'' Winter 1996. * "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler." By Charles H. Rowell. ''Callaloo''&nbsp;20.1. 1997. pp.&nbsp;47–66. [[JSTOR]]&nbsp;[http://www.jstor.org/stable/3299291 3299291]. * "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler." By Steven Piziks. ''Marion Zimmer Bradley Fantasy Magazine.'' Fall 1997. * "[http://www.joanfry.com/congratulations-youve-just-won-295000/ "'Congratulations! You've Just Won $290,000': An Interview with Octavia E. Butler]." By Joan Fry. ''Poets & Writers'' 25.2. 1 March 1997. p.&nbsp;58. * "[http://www.indexmagazine.com/interviews/octavia_butler.shtml Octavia Butler]." By Mike McGonigal. ''Index Magazine''. 1998. ====2000s==== * "A Conversation with Octavia Butler." By [[Charlie Rose]]. ''Charlie Rose''. 2000. [Two videos on YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66pu-Miq4tk Part 1] and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1W9CNwl2e8 Part 2].] * "[http://www.locusmag.com/2000/Issues/06/Butler.html Interview with Octavia Butler]." ''Locus Magazine'' 44. June 2000. p.&nbsp;6. * "Interview". By Stephen Barnes. ''American Visions ''15.5. October–November 2000. pp.&nbsp;24–28. * "Octavia Butler: Soul Sister of Science Fiction". By Robyn McGee. ''Fireweed'' 73. Fall 2001. p.&nbsp;60 and following. * "'Radio Imagination': Octavia Butler on the Politics of Narrative Embodiment". By Marilyn Mehafly and AnaLouise Keating. ''MELUS'' 26.1. 2001. pp.&nbsp;45–76. [[JSTOR]]&nbsp;[http://www.jstor.org/stable/3185496 3185496]. [[doi:10.2307/3185496]] * "[http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/racism/010830.octaviabutler.html Essay on Racism: A Science-Fiction Writer Shares Her View of Intolerance.]" By [[Scott Simon]]. ''Weekend Edition Saturday. ''1 September 2001. [Audio]. * "[http://www.wab.org/if-all-of-rochester-read-the-same-book-2003-2/if-all-2003-a-conversation-with-octavia-butler/ A Conversation with Octavia Butler."] ''Writers & Books.'' 2003. * "Watching the Story Happen." By Darrell Schweitzer. ''Interzone'' 186 (Feb. 2003): 21. Reprinted as "Octavia Butler" in ''Speaking of the Fantastic II: Interviews with the Masters of Science Fiction and Fantasy''. 2004. ISBN 1434442292 (10) ISBN&nbsp;978-1434442291 (13). pp.&nbsp;21–36. * "[http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/ac04/obutler.html Interview with Octavia Butler]". By Joshunda Sanders. ''In Motion Magazine.'' 2004. * "Return of Kindred Spirits: An Anniversary for Octavia E. Butler Is a Time for Reflection and Rejoicing for Fans of Speculative Fiction." By Earni Young. ''Black Issues Book Review'' 6.1. January–February 2004. pp.&nbsp;30–33. * "[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1745712 Octavia Butler's ''Kindred'' Turns 25]." By Allison Keyes. ''[[NPR]]: [[The Tavis Smiley Show]]''. 4 March 2004. * "[http://www.scifidimensions.com/Jun04/octaviaebutler.htm Interview: Octavia Butler]". By John C. Snider. ''SciFiDimensions''. June 2004. * "[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1964371 The Interplay of Science and Science Fiction]" By [[Ira Flatow]]. ''[[NPR]]:'' ''[[Talk of the Nation]].'' 18 June 2004. [Panel discussion; audio]. * "[http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/11/158201 Science Fiction Writer Octavia Butler on Race, Global Warming, and Religion]". By [[Juan Gonzalez (journalist)|Juan Gonzalez]] and [[Amy Goodman]]. ''Democracy Now!'' 11 November 2005. * "[http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/01/63925.html Interview with Octavia Butler]". ''The Independent. ''January 2006. * "[http://www.addictedtorace.com/?p=29 Interview with Octavia Butler]". ''Addicted to Race.'' February 6, 2006. ==External links== {{Spoken Wikipedia|En-Octavia_E._Butler-article.ogg|2015-06-15}} {{Wikiquote}} * [http://octaviabutler.org/ Octavia E. Butler Official Website] * [http://sfwa.org/members/butler/index.html Octavia E. Butler home page] at Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America * {{isfdb name|186}} * [http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/butler_octavia Octavia E. Butler] at [[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]] * {{LCAuth|n79056654|Octavia E. Butler|25|}} *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgeyVE3NHJM "Octavia Butler at a Panel Discussion at UCLA in 2002."] ''YouTube'' * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW9hVkrO9OU "Women Writing Sci-Fi: From ''Brave New Worlds''."] ''YouTube''. Clip from 1993 TV documentary ''Brave New Worlds: The Science Fiction Phenomenon'' featuring Robert Silverberg, Karen Joy Fowler, and Octavia Butler discussing science fiction in the 1970s *[http://www.huntington.org/octaviabutler/ Octavia Butler profile and photos] at the [[Huntington Library]]. She bequeathed her papers to the Huntington. {{Octavia Butler}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Octavia}} [[Category:1947 births]] [[Category:2006 deaths]] [[Category:African-American novelists]] [[Category:American science fiction writers]] [[Category:African-American women writers]] [[Category:American feminist writers]] [[Category:American women novelists]] [[Category:African-American feminists]] [[Category:California State University, Los Angeles alumni]] [[Category:Hugo Award-winning writers]] [[Category:MacArthur Fellows]] [[Category:Nebula Award winners]] [[Category:Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductees]] [[Category:Science fiction fans]] [[Category:Women science fiction and fantasy writers]] [[Category:Writers from Seattle]] [[Category:Postmodern feminists]] [[Category:Postmodern writers]] [[Category:Afrofuturist writers]] [[Category:20th-century American novelists]] [[Category:21st-century American novelists]] [[Category:Feminist science fiction]] [[Category:20th-century women writers]] [[Category:21st-century women writers]] [[Category:Black speculative fiction authors]] [[Category:People diagnosed with dyslexia]]'