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Last edited by bitnapper
November 19, 2024 | History

Octavia E. Butler

An American science fiction writer, one of the best-known among the few African-American women in the field.

Comment by Tricia Sullivan, on The Guardian:
Octavia E Butler (1947–2006)

I was teaching in New York when I came across Octavia E Butler's Kindred in a secondary-school catalogue of novels recommended to support diversity. It caught my attention because Butler was described as a science-fiction writer. I thought I was familiar with science fiction, but I'd never heard of her – nor have a great many other readers, I suspect. For many years, Butler was the sole African-American woman novelist in science fiction. Kindred tells the wrenching and unforgettable story of a young black woman who time-travels and saves the life of her slaveholder ancestor, but it is, in Butler's words, "a grim fantasy", not science fiction.

Beginning in the 1970s, Butler wrote three sequences of novels: the Patternist books, the Lilith's Brood series and the Parable novels (incomplete at her tragic death in 2006). Critically respected, she won the Hugo and Nebula awards, received a Clarke nomination, the PEN lifetime achievement award and a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant. A serious writer working in a field that is seldom taken seriously, Butler addressed biological control, gender, humanity's relationship with aliens, genetics and even the development of a fictional religion. Her narratives leave space for the reader's involvement while exploring the nature of change. They gaze unflinchingly on power dynamics. "Who will rule? Who will lead? Who will define, refine, confine, design? Who will dominate? All struggles are essentially power struggles," Butler stated, "and most are no more intellectual than two rams knocking their heads together." Butler's writing is courageous, stimulating and infused with a rare purity of intention. Crushingly, she died at the height of her powers. Bloodchild and Other Stories is a good place to begin discovering her work.

American science fiction writer (1947-2006)

Born June 22, 1947
Died February 24, 2006

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  • Cover of: Kindred
    Cover of edition kindred00butl Cover of edition kindred00butl_126 First published in 1979 29 editions

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  • Cover of: Parable of the sower

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  • Cover of: Adulthood Rites

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  • Cover of: Dawn
    Cover of edition dawn00butl Cover of edition dawn00butl First published in 1987 19 editions

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  • Cover of: Fledgling

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  • Cover of: Parable of the talents: a novel

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  • Cover of: Wild Seed
    Cover of edition wildseed0000butl_f6y5 Cover of edition wildseed00butl Cover of edition wildseed00butl_0 Cover of edition wildseed00octa Cover of edition wildseed00butl_455 First published in 1980 17 editions

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  • Cover of: Mind of my mind
    Cover of edition mindofmymind00butl Cover of edition mindmymind00butl First published in 1977 16 editions

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  • Cover of: Bloodchild and other stories

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  • Cover of: Clay's ark
    First published in 1984 15 editions

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  • Cover of: Imago

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  • Cover of: Patternmaster

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  • Cover of: Xenogenesis
    Cover of edition xenogenesis00butl Cover of edition xenogenesis00butl First published in 1987 8 editions

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  • Cover of: Lilith’s Brood
    First published in 2000 8 editions

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  • Cover of: Survivor
    First published in 1978 6 editions

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  • Cover of: Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse

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  • Cover of: Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation

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  • Cover of: The New Hugo winners

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  • Cover of: Unexpected Stories
    First published in 2014 4 editions

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  • Cover of: Seed to Harvest
    First published in 2007 4 editions

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History

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November 19, 2024 Edited by bitnapper Edited without comment.
November 19, 2024 Edited by bitnapper merge authors
March 9, 2024 Edited by bitnapper merge authors
January 14, 2024 Edited by identifiers
April 1, 2008 Created by an anonymous user initial import