Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: Where was author Octavia E. Butler born?
Butler was born in Pasadena, California. After her father died, she was raised by her widowed mother. Extremely shy as a child, Octavia found an outlet at the library reading fantasy, and in writing. As a teen she began writing science fiction. She attended community college during the Black Power movement, and while participating in a local writer's workshop was encouraged to attend the Clarion Workshop, which focused on science fiction.
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.[18]
Beaulieu, Elizabeth Ann. "'So Many Relatives': Twentieth-Century Women Meet Their Pasts." Black Women Writers and the American Neo-Slave Narrative: Femininity Unfettered. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1999. 109-136. Bast, Florian. "'No.': The Narrative Theorizing of Embodied Agency in Octavia Butler's Kindred." Extrapolation: A Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy 53.2 (2012): 151-81. Dubey, Madhu. "Speculative Fictions of Slavery." American Literature 82.4 (2010): 779-805. Hua, Linh U. "Reproducing Time, Reproducing History: Love And Black Feminist Sentimentality in Octavia Butler's Kindred. African American Review 44.3 (2011): 391-407. Jesser, Nancy. "Blood, Genes and Gender in Octavia Butler's Kindred and Dawn." Extrapolation 43.1 (2002): 36+. Knabe, Susan and Wendy Gay Pearson. "'Gambling Against History': Queer Kinship and Cruel Optimism in Octavia Butler's Kindred." Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler. Ed. Rebecca J. Holden and Nisi Shawl. Seattle, WA: Aqueduct Press, 2013. 51-78. LaCroix, David. "" The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association 40.1 (Spring, 2007): 109-119. Levecq, Christine. "" Contemporary Literature 41.3 (Fall 2000): 525-553. Long, Lisa. "" College English 64.4 (Mar. 2002): 459-483. McKible, Adam. "" African American Review 28.2 (Summer 1994): 223-235. Parham, Marisa. "Saying 'Yes': Textual Traumas in Octavia Butler's Kindred." Middle Eastern & North African Writers 32.4 (Winter 2009): 1315-1331. Reed, Brian K. "Behold the Woman: The Imaginary Wife in Octavia Butler’s Kindred." CLA Journal Al (Sept. 2003): 66-74. Spaulding, A. Timothy. "The Conflation of Time in Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada and Octavia Butler’s Kindred." Re-forming the Past: History, the Fantastic, and the Postmodern Slave Narrative. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2005. 25-60. Tettenborn, Eva. "Teaching Imagined Testimony: Kindred, Unchained Memories, and The African Burial Ground in Manhattan." Transformations 16.2 (Fall 2005): 87-103. Thompson, Carlyle van. "" Eating the Black Body: Miscegenation as Sexual Consumption in African American Literature and Culture. New York: Peter Lang, 2006. 107-144. ISBN978-0820479316 Turner, Stephanie S. "" FEMSPEC 4.2 (2004): 259-280. Wagers, Kelley. "" MELUS 34.1 (Spring, 2009): 23-45. Wood, Sarah. "" Feminist 85 (2007): 83-96. Flagel, Nadine. "'It's Almost Like Being There': Speculative Fiction, Slave Narrative, and the Crisis of Representation in Octavia Butler's Kindred." Canadian Review of American Studies 42.2 (2012): 216-45. Robertson, Benjamin. "'Some Matching Strangeness': Biology, Politics, and The Embrace of History in Octavia Butler's Kindred." Science Fiction Studies 37.3 (2010): 362-381.
Charlie Rose, "A Conversation with Octavia Butler", Charlie Rose. 2000. [Two videos on YouTube: and .] "", Locus Magazine 44. June 2000, p.6. Stephen Barnes, "Interview", American Visions 15.5. October–November 2000, pp.24–28. Robyn McGee, "Octavia Butler: Soul Sister of Science Fiction", Fireweed 73. Fall 2001, pp.60 and following. Marilyn Mehafly and AnaLouise Keating, "'Radio Imagination': Octavia Butler on the Politics of Narrative Embodiment", MELUS 26.1. 2001, pp.45–76. JSTOR. doi:. Scott Simon, "", Weekend Edition Saturday. September 1, 2001 [Audio]. ", Writers & Books. 2003. Darrell Schweitzer, "Watching the Story Happen", Interzone 186 (February 2003): 21. Reprinted as "Octavia Butler" in Speaking of the Fantastic II: Interviews with the Masters of Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2004. ISBN1434442292 (10) ISBN978-1434442291 (13), pp.21–36. Joshunda Sanders, "", In Motion Magazine, 2004. Earni Young, "Return of Kindred Spirits: An Anniversary for Octavia E. Butler Is a Time for Reflection and Rejoicing for Fans of Speculative Fiction", Black Issues Book Review 6.1. January–February 2004, pp.30–33. Allison Keyes, , NPR: The Tavis Smiley Show. March 4, 2004. John C. Snider, "", SciFiDimensions. June 2004. Ira Flatow, "", NPR: Talk of the Nation, June 18, 2004. [Panel discussion; audio]. Juan Gonzalez and Amy Goodman, , Democracy Now! November 11, 2005. "". The Independent, January 2006. "". Addicted to Race, February 6, 2006.
She soon sold her first stories and by the late 1970s had become sufficiently successful as an author that she was able to pursue writing full-time. Her books and short stories drew the favorable attention of the public and awards judges. She also taught writer's workshops, and eventually relocated to Washington. Butler died of a stroke at the age of 58. Her papers are held in the research collection of the Huntington Library.
Survivor is a science fiction novel by American writer Octavia E. 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. Butler expressed dislike for the work, referring to it as "my Star Trek novel."
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, where the two entered white people's houses through back doors, as workers. Her mother was treated poorly by her employers.[5][6][7]
Veronica Mixon, "Futurist Woman: Octavia Butler." Essence, April 9, 1979, pp.12,15. Jeffrey Elliot, "Interview with Octavia Butler", Thrust 12. Summer 1979, pp.19–22. "Future Forum", Future Life 17. 1980, p.60. Rosalie G. Harrison, "Sci-Fi Visions: An Interview with Octavia Butler", Equal Opportunity Forum Magazine, February 8, 1980, pp.30–34. Wayne Warga, "Corn Chips Yield Grist for Her Mill", Los Angeles Times, January 30, 1981. Sec. 5: 15. Chico Norwood, "Science Fiction Writer Comes of Age", Los Angeles Sentinel, April 16, 1981. A5, Al5. Carolyn S. Davidson, "The Science Fiction of Octavia Butler", SagaU 2.1. 1981, p.35. Bever-leigh Banfield, "Octavia Butler: A Wild Seed", Hip 5.9. 1981, pp.48 and following. "Black Scholar</i>Interview with Octavia Butler: Black Women and the Science Fiction Genre." By Frances M. Beal.Black Scholar. 17.2. March–April 1986, pp.14–18. JSTOR. Charles Brown, "Octavia E. Butler", Locus 21.10. October 1988. S. McHenry, "Otherworldly Vision", Essence 29.10. February 1989. p.80. Claudia Peck, "Interview: Octavia Butler", Skewed: The Magazine of Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror 1. pp.18–27.
Larry McCaffery and Jim McMenamin, "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler", in Larry McCaffery (ed.), Across the Wounded Galaxies: Interviews with Contemporary American Science Fiction Writers, 1990. ISBN978-0252061400, pp.54–70. Randall Kenan, "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler", Callaloo 14.2. 1991, pp.495–505. JSTOR. doi:. Lisa See, "PW Interviews", Publishers Weekly 240. December 13, 1993, pp.50–51. H. Jerome Jackson, "Sci-Fi Tales from Octavia E. Butler", Crisis 101.3. April 1994, p.4. Jelani Cobb, "Interview with Octavia Butler", jelanicobb.com, 1994. Reprinted in Conseula Francis (ed.), Conversations with Octavia Butler, Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2010, pp.49–64. Stephen W. Potts, , Science Fiction Studies 23.3. November 1996, pp.331–338. JSTOR. Tasha Kelly and Jan Berrien Berends, "Octavia E. Butler Mouths Off!" Terra Incognita, Winter 1996. Charles H. Rowell, "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler", Callaloo</i>20.1. 1997, pp.47–66. JSTOR. Steven Piziks, "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler", Marion Zimmer Bradley Fantasy Magazine, Fall 1997. Joan Fry, , Poets & Writers 25.2. March 1, 1997, p.58. Mike McGonigal, "", Index Magazine. 1998.
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.[47]
Mind of My Mind (1977) is a science fiction novel by American writer Octavia E. Butler. "Mind of My Mind" is the sequel to Butler's novel "Patternmaster", and is the second novel in the "Patternist" series.
—Octavia E. Butler, in "Octavia E. Butler: Telling My Stories."[12]
—Octavia E. Butler, in Carolyn S. Davidson's "The Science Fiction of Octavia Butler."
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 Clarion West Writers Workshop and 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.[67]
Becker, Jennifer. "", Lauren Curtright (ed.), Voices From the Gaps, University of Minnesota, August 21, 2004. "Butler, Octavia 1947–2006", in Jelena O. Krstovic (ed.), Black Literature Criticism: Classic and Emerging Authors since 1950, 2nd edn. 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)", in Richard Bleiler (ed.),Science Fiction Writers: Critical Studies of the Major Authors from the Early Nineteenth Century to the Present Day. 2nd edn. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999. 147–158. Smalls, F. Romall, and Arnold Markoe (eds). "Octavia Estelle Butler". The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Volume 8. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons/Gale, Cengage Learning, 2010: 65–66.
In interviews with Charles Rowell and Randall Kenan, Butler credited the struggles of her working-class mother as an important influence on her writing.[6][44] 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.[9] She also encouraged Butler to write. She bought her daughter her first typewriter when she was 10 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.[4] A decade later, Mrs. Butler would pay more than a month's rent to have an agent review her daughter's work.[9] 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.[18]
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.[53] 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 are still with us.[54] The graphic novel adaption debuted as number one New York Times hardcover graphic book bestseller on January 29, 2017.[55]
In 2015, Mondal attended the Clarion West Writers Workshop in Seattle, USA, where she was the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholar. In 2017, she completed her MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers University.
—Octavia E. Butler, reading the self-penned description of herself included in Parable of the Sower during a 1994 interview with Jelani Cobb.
Clay's Ark (1984) is a novel by American science fiction author Octavia E. Butler. The last published of her "Patternist" series, the novel serves as a prequel that accounts for the arrival of the Clay Ark disease that leads to the evolution of clayarks, the mutants that threaten human survival in the other books in the series.
Caren Gussoff was born in New York, New York and attended the University of Colorado at Boulder, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Clarion West. At Clarion West in 2008, she was awarded The Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship by the Carl Brandon Society.
The Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship was established in Butler's memory in 2006 by the Society. 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 scholarship was awarded in 2007.
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. Octavia was raised by her mother and maternal grandmother in what she would later recall as a strict Baptist environment.[4]
at Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction at Library of Congress Authorities, with 25 catalog records . YouTube . 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 at the Huntington Library. She bequeathed her papers to the Huntington.
On June 22, 2018, which would have been Butler's 71st birthday, Google featured her in a Google Doodle in the United States.[66]