Octavia E. Butler
Encyclopedia
Octavia Estelle Butler was an American
science fiction
writer
, one of the best-known among the few African-American women in the field. She won both Hugo
and Nebula
awards. In 1995, she became the first science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant
.
, California
. Since her father Laurice, a shoeshiner, died when she was a baby, Butler was raised by her grandmother and her mother (Octavia M. Butler), who worked as a maid in order to support the family. Butler grew up in a struggling, racially mixed neighborhood. According to the Norton Anthology of African American Literature
, Butler was "an introspective, only child in a strict Baptist
household" and "was drawn early to [science fiction] magazines
such as Amazing
, Fantasy and Science Fiction
, and Galaxy
and soon began reading all the science fiction classics."
Octavia Jr., nicknamed Junie, was paralytically shy and a daydreamer, and was later diagnosed as being dyslexic
. She began writing at the age of 10 "to escape loneliness and boredom"; she was 12 when she began a lifelong interest in science fiction. "I was writing my own little stories and when I was 12, I was watching a bad science fiction movie called Devil Girl from Mars
," she told the journal Black Scholar, "and decided that I could write a better story than that. And I turned off the TV and proceeded to try, and I've been writing science fiction ever since."
in 1968 http://www.pasadena.edu/about/history/alumni/butler/butler.cfm, she next enrolled at California State University, Los Angeles
. She eventually left CalState and took writing classes through UCLA extension.
Butler would later credit two writing workshops for giving her "the most valuable help I received with my writing" http://www.sfwa.org/members/butler/Autobiography.html:
She remained, throughout her career, a self-identified science fiction fan
, an insider who rose from within the ranks of the field.
Butler moved to Seattle, Washington, in November 1999. She described herself as "comfortably asocial—a hermit in the middle of Seattle—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." Themes of both racial and sexual ambiguity are apparent throughout her work.
She died outside of her home in Lake Forest Park, Washington
, on February 24, 2006, at the age of 58. 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 (issue 543; Vol.56 No.4), is that a stroke caused the fall and hence the head injuries.
for the never-published collection The Last Dangerous Visions
. (Like other stories purchased for that volume, it has yet to appear anywhere.) "I thought I was on my way as a writer..." Butler wrote 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."
). Over the next eight years, she would publish four more novels in the same story line, though the publication dates of the novels do not match the internal order of the series (see Works below).
Wild Seed
, the first book in the Patternist series, was published in 1980. In Wild Seed, Butler contrasts how two potentially immortal
characters go about building families. The male character, Doro, engages in a breeding program to create people with stronger psychic powers both as food, and as potential companions. The female character, Anyanwu, creates villages. Yet Doro and Anyanwu, in spite of their differences grow to need each other, as the only immortal/extremely long-lived beings in the world. This book also explores the psychodynamics of power and enslavement.
, a novel that uses what many have considered a science fiction concept of time travel
to explore slavery in the United States; however, Butler insisted that the novel and the concept more appropriately fit into the fantasy genre, as she did not use any science to explain the time travel. In this story, Dana, an African American
woman, is inexplicably transported from 1976 Los Angeles to early nineteenth century Maryland
. She meets her ancestors: Rufus, a white slave holder, and Alice, an African-American woman who was born free
but forced into slavery later in life.
This novel is often shelved in the literature or African-American literature sections of bookstores instead of science fiction—Butler herself categorized the novel not as science fiction but rather as a grim fantasy
, as there was absolutely no science in it. (no scientific explanation of the book's time travel is ever given) Kindred became the most popular of all her books, with more than 450,000 copies currently in print. "I think people really need to think what it's like to have all of society arrayed against you," she said of the novel.
, after a "handful of people [a military group] tried to commit humanicide," leading to a missile war that destroyed much of Earth. The Oankali have a third gender
, the ooloi, who have the ability to manipulate genetics, plus the ability of sexually seductive neural-stimulating and consciousness-sharing powers. All of these abilities allow them to unify the other two genders in their species, as well as unifying their species with others that they encounter. The Oankali are biological traders, driven to share genes with other intelligent species, changing both parties.
was nominated for a Nebula for best novel, an award she received in 1999 for a sequel, Parable of the Talents
. The two novels provide the origin of the fictional religion Earthseed
.
Butler had originally planned to write a third Parable novel, tentatively titled Parable of the Trickster, mentioning her work on it in a number of interviews.
, a vampire
novel with a science-fiction context. Although Butler herself passed Fledgling
off as a lark, the novel is connected to her other works through its exploration of race, sexuality, and what it means to be a member of a community. Moreover, the novel continues the theme, raised explicitly in Parable of the Sower, that diversity is a biological imperative.
, in 1996. She states in the preface that she "hate[s] short-story writing" and that she is "essentially a novelist. The ideas that most interest me tend to be big." The collection includes five short stories spanning Butler's career, the first finished in 1971 and the last in 1993. "Bloodchild", the Hugo and Nebula award-winning title story, concerns humans who live on a reservation on an alien planet ruled by insect-like creatures. The aliens breed by implanting eggs in the humans, with whom they share a symbiotic existence. In Butler's afterword to the story, she writes that it is not about slavery as some have suggested, but rather about love and coming-of-age—as well as male pregnancy
and the "unusual accommodation[s]" that a group of interstellar colonists might have to make with their adopted planet's prior inhabitants.
She also states that writing it was her way of overcoming a fear of bot flies.
In 2005, Seven Stories Press
released an expanded edition.
, Lilith's Brood (formerly the Xenogenesis trilogy), and the Parable series. The first book that she wrote for the Patternist series, Patternmaster (1976), is actually the last in the internal chronology of the series. In fact, most of the Patternmaster novels were written and published out of sequence. The four novels in Butler's Patternist series other than Survivor were released in 2006 as the single volume Seed to Harvest.
Nominated:
. Its goal is to provide an annual scholarship to enable writers of color to attend one of the Clarion writing workshops
where Butler got her start. The first scholarships were awarded in 2007.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, one of the best-known among the few African-American women in the field. She won both Hugo
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
and Nebula
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
awards. In 1995, she became the first science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant
MacArthur Fellows Program
The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T...
.
Background
Butler was born and raised in PasadenaPasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Since her father Laurice, a shoeshiner, died when she was a baby, Butler was raised by her grandmother and her mother (Octavia M. Butler), who worked as a maid in order to support the family. Butler grew up in a struggling, racially mixed neighborhood. According to the Norton Anthology of African American Literature
W. W. Norton
W. W. Norton & Company is an independent American book publishing company based in New York City. It is well known for its "Norton Anthologies", particularly the Norton Anthology of English Literature and the "Norton Critical Editions" series of texts which are frequently assigned in university...
, Butler was "an introspective, only child in a strict Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
household" and "was drawn early to [science fiction] magazines
Science fiction magazine
A science fiction magazine is a publication that offers primarily science fiction, either in a hard copy periodical format or on the Internet....
such as Amazing
Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories was an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction...
, Fantasy and Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a digest-size American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House and then by Fantasy House. Both were subsidiaries of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Publications, which took over as publisher in 1958. Spilogale, Inc...
, and Galaxy
Galaxy Science Fiction
Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by an Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break in to the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L...
and soon began reading all the science fiction classics."
Octavia Jr., nicknamed Junie, was paralytically shy and a daydreamer, and was later diagnosed as being dyslexic
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...
. She began writing at the age of 10 "to escape loneliness and boredom"; she was 12 when she began a lifelong interest in science fiction. "I was writing my own little stories and when I was 12, I was watching a bad science fiction movie called Devil Girl from Mars
Devil Girl from Mars
Devil Girl from Mars is a black and white 1954 British science fiction film, directed by David MacDonald. It was adapted from a stage play and became a cult favorite.-Synopsis:...
," she told the journal Black Scholar, "and decided that I could write a better story than that. And I turned off the TV and proceeded to try, and I've been writing science fiction ever since."
Education and personal life
After getting an associate's degree from Pasadena City CollegePasadena City College
Pasadena City College is a community college in Pasadena, California, USA, located on Colorado Boulevard. PCC is the third largest community college campus in the United States. PCC was founded in 1924 as Pasadena Junior College. In 1954, Pasadena Junior College merged with another junior...
in 1968 http://www.pasadena.edu/about/history/alumni/butler/butler.cfm, she next enrolled at California State University, Los Angeles
California State University, Los Angeles
California State University, Los Angeles is a public comprehensive university, part of the California State University system...
. She eventually left CalState and took writing classes through UCLA extension.
Butler would later credit two writing workshops for giving her "the most valuable help I received with my writing" http://www.sfwa.org/members/butler/Autobiography.html:
- 1969–1970: The Open Door Workshop of the Screenwriters' Guild of AmericaWriters Guild of AmericaThe Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
, West, a program designed to mentor Latino and African American writers. Through Open Door she met the noted science fiction writer Harlan EllisonHarlan EllisonHarlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
. - 1970: The Clarion Science Fiction Writers WorkshopClarion WorkshopClarion is a six-week workshop for new and aspiring science fiction and fantasy writers. Originally an outgrowth of Knight and Wilhelm's Milford Writers' Conference, held at their home in Milford, Pennsylvania, USA, it was founded in 1968 by Robin Scott Wilson at Clarion State College in...
, (introduced to her by Ellison), where she first met Samuel R. DelanySamuel R. DelanySamuel Ray Delany, Jr., also known as "Chip" is an American author, professor and literary critic. His work includes a number of novels, many in the science fiction genre, as well as memoir, criticism, and essays on sexuality and society.His science fiction novels include Babel-17, The Einstein...
.
She remained, throughout her career, a self-identified science fiction fan
Science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
, an insider who rose from within the ranks of the field.
Butler moved to Seattle, Washington, in November 1999. She described herself as "comfortably asocial—a hermit in the middle of Seattle—a pessimist
Pessimism
Pessimism, from the Latin word pessimus , is a state of mind in which one perceives life negatively. Value judgments may vary dramatically between individuals, even when judgments of fact are undisputed. The most common example of this phenomenon is the "Is the glass half empty or half full?"...
if I'm not careful, a feminist, a Black, a former Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
, an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive." Themes of both racial and sexual ambiguity are apparent throughout her work.
She died outside of her home in Lake Forest Park, Washington
Lake Forest Park, Washington
Lake Forest Park is a city in King County, Washington, United States, just north of Seattle. A bedroom community by design, most of the city consists of single-family housing on medium to large-sized lots, with an emphasis on retaining the natural features of the landscape...
, on February 24, 2006, at the age of 58. 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
Locus (magazine)
Locus, subtitled "The Magazine Of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field", is published monthly in Oakland, California. It reports on the science fiction and fantasy publishing field, including comprehensive listings of all new books published in the genre. It is considered the news organ and trade...
magazine (issue 543; Vol.56 No.4), is that a stroke caused the fall and hence the head injuries.
Career
Her first published story, "Crossover," appeared in Clarion's 1971 anthology; another short story, "Childfinder," was bought by Harlan EllisonHarlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
for the never-published collection The Last Dangerous Visions
The Last Dangerous Visions
The Last Dangerous Visions was a planned sequel to the science fiction short story anthologies Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions, originally published in 1967 and 1972 respectively. It is edited by Harlan Ellison....
. (Like other stories purchased for that volume, it has yet to appear anywhere.) "I thought I was on my way as a writer..." Butler wrote in her short fiction collection Bloodchild and Other Stories
Bloodchild and Other Stories
Bloodchild and Other Stories is the only and rather brief collection of science fiction stories and essays by Octavia E. Butler. Each story features an afterword by Butler...
. "In fact, I had five more years of rejection slips and horrible little jobs ahead of me before I sold another word."
Patternist series
In 1974, she started the novel Patternmaster (reportedly related to the story she started after watching Devil Girl from Mars), which became her first published book in 1976 (though it would become the fifth in the Patternist seriesPatternist series
The Patternist series is a group of science fiction novels by Octavia E. Butler that detail a secret history continuing into from the Ancient Egyptian period to the far future that involves telepathic mind control and an extraterrestrial plague...
). Over the next eight years, she would publish four more novels in the same story line, though the publication dates of the novels do not match the internal order of the series (see Works below).
Wild Seed
Wild Seed (Octavia Butler novel)
Wild Seed is a science fiction novel by writer Octavia Butler. Although published in 1980 as the third book of the Patternist series it is the earliest book in the chronology of the Patternist world...
, the first book in the Patternist series, was published in 1980. In Wild Seed, Butler contrasts how two potentially immortal
Immortality
Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
characters go about building families. The male character, Doro, engages in a breeding program to create people with stronger psychic powers both as food, and as potential companions. The female character, Anyanwu, creates villages. Yet Doro and Anyanwu, in spite of their differences grow to need each other, as the only immortal/extremely long-lived beings in the world. This book also explores the psychodynamics of power and enslavement.
Kindred
In 1979, she published KindredKindred (novel)
Kindred is a 1979 novel by Octavia Butler. While most of Butler's work is classified as science fiction, Kindred is often shelved in literature or African-American literature and Butler herself categorized it as "a kind of grim fantasy"....
, a novel that uses what many have considered a science fiction concept of time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
to explore slavery in the United States; however, Butler insisted that the novel and the concept more appropriately fit into the fantasy genre, as she did not use any science to explain the time travel. In this story, Dana, an African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
woman, is inexplicably transported from 1976 Los Angeles to early nineteenth century Maryland
History of Maryland
The history of Maryland included only Native Americans until Europeans, starting with John Cabot in 1498, began exploring the area. The first settlements came in 1634 when the English arrived in significant numbers and created a permanent colony. In 1776, during the American Revolution, Maryland...
. She meets her ancestors: Rufus, a white slave holder, and Alice, an African-American woman who was born free
Free Negro
A free Negro or free black is the term used prior to the abolition of slavery in the United States to describe African Americans who were not slaves. Almost all African Americans came to the United States as slaves, but from the earliest days of American slavery, slaveholders set men and women free...
but forced into slavery later in life.
This novel is often shelved in the literature or African-American literature sections of bookstores instead of science fiction—Butler herself categorized the novel not as science fiction but rather as a grim fantasy
Fantasy (psychology)
Fantasy in a psychological sense is broadly used to cover two different senses, conscious and unconscious. In the unconscious sense, it is sometimes spelled "phantasy".-Conscious fantasy:...
, as there was absolutely no science in it. (no scientific explanation of the book's time travel is ever given) Kindred became the most popular of all her books, with more than 450,000 copies currently in print. "I think people really need to think what it's like to have all of society arrayed against you," she said of the novel.
Lilith's Brood
Lilith's Brood (formerly the Xenogenesis trilogy) refers to a collection of three novels. The central characters are Lilith and her genetically altered children. Lilith, along with the few other surviving humans, are saved by extraterrestrials, the OankaliOankali
The Oankali are a fictional race of intelligent extraterrestrials in Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis book trilogy ....
, after a "handful of people [a military group] tried to commit humanicide," leading to a missile war that destroyed much of Earth. The Oankali have a third gender
Third gender
The terms third gender and third sex describe individuals who are categorized as neither man nor woman, as well as the social category present in those societies who recognize three or more genders...
, the ooloi, who have the ability to manipulate genetics, plus the ability of sexually seductive neural-stimulating and consciousness-sharing powers. All of these abilities allow them to unify the other two genders in their species, as well as unifying their species with others that they encounter. The Oankali are biological traders, driven to share genes with other intelligent species, changing both parties.
The Parable series
In 1994, her dystopian novel Parable of the SowerParable of the Sower (novel)
Parable of the Sower is the first in a two-book series of science fiction novels written by Octavia E. Butler and published in 1993.-Plot summary:...
was nominated for a Nebula for best novel, an award she received in 1999 for a sequel, Parable of the Talents
Parable of the Talents (novel)
Parable of the Talents is the second in a series of science fiction novels written by Octavia E. Butler and published in 1998.-Plot introduction:...
. The two novels provide the origin of the fictional religion Earthseed
Earthseed
Earthseed is a fictional religion based on the idea that "God is Change." It is the creation of Octavia E. Butler, as revealed by her character Lauren Oya Olamina in the books: Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents...
.
Butler had originally planned to write a third Parable novel, tentatively titled Parable of the Trickster, mentioning her work on it in a number of interviews.
Fledgling
She eventually shifted her creative attention, resulting in the 2005 novel FledglingFledgling (novel)
Fledgling is a science fiction novel by Octavia Butler and published in 2005.-Plot summary:The novel tells the story of Shori, who appears to be a 10 or 11 year old African-American girl, but is actually a 53 year old member of a race called "Ina". It is eventually revealed that the Ina are the...
, a vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
novel with a science-fiction context. Although Butler herself passed Fledgling
Fledgling (novel)
Fledgling is a science fiction novel by Octavia Butler and published in 2005.-Plot summary:The novel tells the story of Shori, who appears to be a 10 or 11 year old African-American girl, but is actually a 53 year old member of a race called "Ina". It is eventually revealed that the Ina are the...
off as a lark, the novel is connected to her other works through its exploration of race, sexuality, and what it means to be a member of a community. Moreover, the novel continues the theme, raised explicitly in Parable of the Sower, that diversity is a biological imperative.
Short stories
Butler published one collection of her shorter writings, Bloodchild and Other StoriesBloodchild and Other Stories
Bloodchild and Other Stories is the only and rather brief collection of science fiction stories and essays by Octavia E. Butler. Each story features an afterword by Butler...
, in 1996. She states in the preface that she "hate[s] short-story writing" and that she is "essentially a novelist. The ideas that most interest me tend to be big." The collection includes five short stories spanning Butler's career, the first finished in 1971 and the last in 1993. "Bloodchild", the Hugo and Nebula award-winning title story, concerns humans who live on a reservation on an alien planet ruled by insect-like creatures. The aliens breed by implanting eggs in the humans, with whom they share a symbiotic existence. In Butler's afterword to the story, she writes that it is not about slavery as some have suggested, but rather about love and coming-of-age—as well as male pregnancy
Male pregnancy
Male pregnancy refers to the incubation of one or more embryos or fetuses by male members of any species. In nearly all heterogamous animal species, offspring are ordinarily carried by the female until birth, but in fish of the Syngnathidae family , males perform this function...
and the "unusual accommodation[s]" that a group of interstellar colonists might have to make with their adopted planet's prior inhabitants.
She also states that writing it was her way of overcoming a fear of bot flies.
In 2005, Seven Stories Press
Seven Stories Press
Seven Stories Press is an independent publishing company. Located in New York City, the company was founded by editor Dan Simon in 1995 after he parted company with Four Walls Eight Windows. The company was named for its seven founding authors: Annie Ernaux, Gary Null, the estate of Nelson Algren,...
released an expanded edition.
Series
Butler is well known for her Patternist seriesPatternist series
The Patternist series is a group of science fiction novels by Octavia E. Butler that detail a secret history continuing into from the Ancient Egyptian period to the far future that involves telepathic mind control and an extraterrestrial plague...
, Lilith's Brood (formerly the Xenogenesis trilogy), and the Parable series. The first book that she wrote for the Patternist series, Patternmaster (1976), is actually the last in the internal chronology of the series. In fact, most of the Patternmaster novels were written and published out of sequence. The four novels in Butler's Patternist series other than Survivor were released in 2006 as the single volume Seed to Harvest.
Themes of Social Criticism
Butler used the hyperbolic reach of speculative fiction to explore modern and ancient social issues. She often represented concepts like race, sexuality, gender, religion, social progress, and social class in metaphoric language. However, these issues were not relegated only to metaphor. For instance, class struggle is an overt topic in the Parable of the Sower series.Awards
Winner:- 2010: Inductee Science Fiction Hall of FameScience Fiction Hall of FameThe Science Fiction Hall of Fame can refer to:*Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, Washington, founded in 1994**The hall of fame located there...
- 2000: lifetime achievement award in writing from the PEN American CenterPEN American CenterPEN American Center , founded in 1922 and based in New York City, works to advance literature, to defend free expression, and to foster international literary fellowship. The Center has a membership of 3,300 writers, editors, and translators...
- 1999: Nebula Award for Best NovelNebula Award for Best NovelWinners of the Nebula Award for Best Novel, awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The stated year is that of publication; awards are given in the following year.- Winners and other nominees :...
- Parable of the TalentsParable of the Talents (novel)Parable of the Talents is the second in a series of science fiction novels written by Octavia E. Butler and published in 1998.-Plot introduction:... - 1995: MacArthur Foundation "Genius" GrantMacArthur Fellows ProgramThe MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T...
- 1985: Hugo Award for Best NoveletteHugo Award for Best NoveletteThe Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
- Bloodchild - 1985: Locus AwardLocus AwardThe Locus Award is a literary award established in 1971 and presented to winners of Locus magazine's annual readers' poll. Currently, the Locus Awards are presented at an annual banquet...
for Best Novelette - "Bloodchild" - 1985: Science Fiction Chronicle Award for Best Novelette - "Bloodchild"
- 1984: Nebula Award for Best NoveletteNebula Award for Best NoveletteWinners of the Nebula Award for best Novelette. The stated year is that of publication; awards are given in the following year. Winning titles are listed first, with other nominees listed below.-External links:* * *...
- Bloodchild - 1984: Hugo Award for Best Short StoryHugo Award for Best Short StoryThe Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
- Speech SoundsSpeech Sounds"Speech Sounds" is a science fiction short story by Octavia Butler. It was most recently published in a collection of short stories titled Bloodchild and Other Stories . It was first published in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine in 1983... - 1980: Creative Arts Award, L.A. YWCA
Nominated:
- 1994: Nebula Award for Best NovelNebula Award for Best NovelWinners of the Nebula Award for Best Novel, awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The stated year is that of publication; awards are given in the following year.- Winners and other nominees :...
- Parable of the SowerParable of the Sower (novel)Parable of the Sower is the first in a two-book series of science fiction novels written by Octavia E. Butler and published in 1993.-Plot summary:... - 1987: Nebula Award for Best NoveletteNebula Award for Best NoveletteWinners of the Nebula Award for best Novelette. The stated year is that of publication; awards are given in the following year. Winning titles are listed first, with other nominees listed below.-External links:* * *...
- The Evening and the Morning and the Night - 1967: Fifth Place, Writer's Digest Short Story Contest
Scholarship fund
The Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship was established in Butler's memory in 2006 by the Carl Brandon SocietyCarl Brandon Society
The Carl Brandon Society is a group originating within the science fiction community "dedicated to addressing the representation of people of color in the fantastical genres such as science fiction, fantasy and horror.....
. Its goal is to provide an annual scholarship to enable writers of color to attend one of the Clarion writing workshops
Clarion Workshop
Clarion is a six-week workshop for new and aspiring science fiction and fantasy writers. Originally an outgrowth of Knight and Wilhelm's Milford Writers' Conference, held at their home in Milford, Pennsylvania, USA, it was founded in 1968 by Robin Scott Wilson at Clarion State College in...
where Butler got her start. The first scholarships were awarded in 2007.
Series
- Patternist seriesPatternist seriesThe Patternist series is a group of science fiction novels by Octavia E. Butler that detail a secret history continuing into from the Ancient Egyptian period to the far future that involves telepathic mind control and an extraterrestrial plague...
- Patternmaster (1976)
- Mind of My Mind (1977)
- SurvivorSurvivor (Octavia Butler novel)Survivor is a science fiction novel by Octavia Butler. First published in 1978 as part of Butler's "Patternist series," Survivor is the only one of Butler's early novels not to be reprinted after its initial editions...
(1978) - Wild SeedWild Seed (Octavia Butler novel)Wild Seed is a science fiction novel by writer Octavia Butler. Although published in 1980 as the third book of the Patternist series it is the earliest book in the chronology of the Patternist world...
(1980) - Clay's Ark (1984)
- Seed to Harvest (compilation; 2007-does not include Survivor)
- Lilith's Brood (formerly the Xenogenesis trilogy)
- Dawn (1987)
- Adulthood Rites (1988)
- Imago (1989)
- Parable Series
- Parable of the SowerParable of the Sower (novel)Parable of the Sower is the first in a two-book series of science fiction novels written by Octavia E. Butler and published in 1993.-Plot summary:...
(1993) - Parable of the TalentsParable of the Talents (novel)Parable of the Talents is the second in a series of science fiction novels written by Octavia E. Butler and published in 1998.-Plot introduction:...
(1998)
- Parable of the Sower
Standalone novels
- KindredKindred (novel)Kindred is a 1979 novel by Octavia Butler. While most of Butler's work is classified as science fiction, Kindred is often shelved in literature or African-American literature and Butler herself categorized it as "a kind of grim fantasy"....
(1979) - FledglingFledgling (novel)Fledgling is a science fiction novel by Octavia Butler and published in 2005.-Plot summary:The novel tells the story of Shori, who appears to be a 10 or 11 year old African-American girl, but is actually a 53 year old member of a race called "Ina". It is eventually revealed that the Ina are the...
(2005)
Short stories
- Bloodchild and Other StoriesBloodchild and Other StoriesBloodchild and Other Stories is the only and rather brief collection of science fiction stories and essays by Octavia E. Butler. Each story features an afterword by Butler...
(1995); Second edition with additional stories (2006)
Articles
- http://seedtoharvest.wordpress.com/category/seed-to-harvestpatternist-series/"
- A Few Rules For Predicting The Future
- AHA! MOMENT-Eye Witness: Octavia Butler
See also
- AfrofuturismAfrofuturismAfrofuturism is an emergent literary and cultural aesthetic that combines elements of science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, Afrocentricity, and magic realism with non-Western cosmologies in order to critique not only the present-day dilemmas of people of color, but also to revise,...
- List of science fiction authors
- OankaliOankaliThe Oankali are a fictional race of intelligent extraterrestrials in Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis book trilogy ....
- Ooloi
- Women science fiction authors
Biographies
- Smalls, F. Romall, Arnold Markoe, (editor). "Octavia Estelle Butler." In The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Volume 8. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons/Gale, Cengage Learning, 2010: 65-66
- Gates, Henry Louis Jr (ed.). "Octavia Butler." In 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." In Postmodern American Fiction: A Norton Anthology. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1998: 554-555.
Scholarship
- Baccolini, Raffaella. "Gender and Genre in the Feminist Critical Dystopias of Katharine Burdekin, Margaret Atwood, and Octavia Butler." in 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.
- Haraway, DonnaDonna HarawayDonna J. Haraway is currently a Distinguished Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, United States...
. "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," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge, 1991: 149-181, 203-230. - Holden, Rebecca J., "The High Costs of Cyborg Survival: Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis Trilogy," in Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction 72 (1998): 49–56.
- Lennard, JohnJohn LennardJohn Lennard is Professor of British and American Literature at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, and a freelance academic and writer.-Biography:...
. Octavia Butler: Xenogenesis / Lilith's Brood. Tirril: Humanities-Ebooks, 2007. ISBN 978-1-84760-036-3 - -- "Of Organelles: The Strange Determination of Octavia Butler." In 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," in Contemporary Literature 41.1 (2000 Spring): 525–53.
- Luckhurst, Roger, "'Horror and Beauty in Rare Combination': The Miscegenate Fictions of Octavia Butler," in Women: A Cultural Review 7.1 (1996): 28–38.
- 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," in 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." In 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," in 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." In Accelerating Possession, William Maurer and Gabriele Schwab (eds.). New York: Columbia UP, 2006: 204-228.
- Scott, Johnathan. "Octavia Butler and the Base for American Socialism" In Socialism and Democracy 20.3 November 2006, 105-126
- Slonczewski, Joan, "Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis Trilogy: A Biologist’s Response" http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/books/butler1.html
External links
- Octavia E. Butler home page at Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
Biography and criticism
- Voices from the Gaps: Octavia Estelle Butler
- Octavia Butler biography from Black Women in America at OUP Blog
- Strange Bedfellows: Eugenics, Attraction, and Aversion in the Works of Octavia E. Butler
Other
- Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship, administered by the Carl Brandon SocietyCarl Brandon SocietyThe Carl Brandon Society is a group originating within the science fiction community "dedicated to addressing the representation of people of color in the fantastical genres such as science fiction, fantasy and horror.....
- OctaviaButler.net; a fansite which includes rare content by and about Octavia Butler.
Interviews
- "Interview with Octavia Butler", Addicted to Race, February 6, 2006.
- "Interview with Octavia Butler", The Indypendent, January 2006
- "Science Fiction Writer Octavia Butler on Race, Global Warming, and Religion", Democracy Now!, November 11, 2005.
- Interview with Octavia Butler by Joshunda Sanders,In Motion Magazine (2004)
- "The Interplay of Science and Science Fiction" Panel Discussion, on NPR, Talk of the Nation, June 18, 2004 (audio)
- "Interview: Octavia Butler", scifidimensions, June 2004; on the 25th anniversary of Kindred.
- Kindred Reader’s Guide: A Conversation with Octavia Butler, Writers & Books, 2003
- "Essay on Racism: A Science-Fiction Writer Shares Her View of Intolerance", Weekend Edition Saturday, September 1, 2001 (audio)
- Interview with Octavia Butler, Locus magazine, June 2000
- Ask the Experts: Octavia Butler, PBS (video)
- 1996 Science Fiction Studies interview