Octavia E. Butler
22 June 1947 - 25 February 2006
I didn't know that Black people wrote science-fiction until I read Octavia Butler. I'd always enjoyed the escape and creative shot to my imagination I experienced when I read Sci-Fi and Fantasy, but when I read Octavia, I could relate. She treated subjects and social situations in her work with which I could identify as an African-American and her protagonists were women!
I believe that one of the best ways to appreciate a person and their life is to experience their legacy in some way at their passing. Below, you will find links to a USA Today story which relates the details of her death, an interview from this past November, and an essay she read during an interview on NPR a few years back.
Rest in peace Octavia.
D.M.H.
Science fiction writer Octavia Butler dies
SEATTLE (AP) - Octavia E. Butler, considered the first black woman to gain national prominence as a science fiction writer, has died, a close friend said Sunday. She was 58. Butler fell and struck her head on the cobbled walkway outside her home, said Leslie Howle, a longtime friend and employee at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle......
Find this article at: http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-02-27-butler-obit_x.htm
Friday, November 11th, 2005
Science Fiction Writer Octavia Butler on Race, Global Warming and Religion
We speak with Octavia Butler, one of the few well-known African-American women science fiction writers. For the past thirty years, her work has tackled subjects not normally seen in that genre such as race, the environment and religion. [includes rush transcript]
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/11/158201
Exclusively on NPR Online, Octavia Butler's Essay on a World Without Racism.
Sept. 1, 2001 -- As part of NPR's special report for the UN Conference on Racism, Weekend Edition Saturday's Scott Simon interviews a writer who shares her vision of what it means to be an outsider.
http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/racism/010830.octaviabutler.html
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