Monday, February 27, 2006

Octavia Butler Dead at 58

Pioneering SF author Octavia Butler died over the weekend from injuries sustained when she fell near her home and hit her head on a walkway. She was 58.

Butler was known not only for her work but also for being a female and African-American voice in a genre - science fiction - dominated largely by the white and the male. She was also the first ever science fiction writer to be awarded a MacArthur "Genius" grant, which is pioneering in an entirely different way.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Butler lived near Seattle) has a rememberance of her.

More on and by Butler:
An Amazon.com listing of her works
Biography at Oxford University Press
An NPR interview on racism
Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Two short stories by Butler:
The Book of Martha
Amnesty

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