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Octavia Butler

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Works About the Author

Allison, Dorothy. "The Future of Female: Octavia Butler's Mother Lode."
Reading Black, Reading Feminist: A Critical Anthology. Ed.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Meridian, 1990. 471-78.

Govan, Sandra Y. Notable Black American Women. Detroit, MI: Gale
Research, 1992.

Lesniak, James G. Contemporary Authors. New Revision Series (v.
38). Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1993.

Levy, Michael. "Green SF and Eco Feminism." Originally published in
IAFA Newsletter, Spring 1989 issues. Reprinted in Robert Collins and
Robert Latham, editors, Science Fiction and Fantasy book Review
Annual, 1989 Edition (Westport, CN: Meckler, 1990). "Review article
of recent work by Octavia Butler, Nancy Kress, Pamela Sargent, and Sheri
S. Tepper" -- ML.

Locher, Frances Carol. Contemporary Authors. (v. 73-76). Detroit, MI:
Gale Research, 1978.

McTyre, Robert E. "Octavia Butler: Black America's first lady of science
fiction." Michigan Chronicle. April 26, 1994. pp PG.

Raffel, Burton. "Genre to the Rear, Race and Gender to the Fore: The
Novels of Octavia E. Butler." Literary Review. Vol. 38. April 1, 1995.
454.
Salvaggio, Ruth. "Octavia Butler and the Black Science Fiction Heroine."
Black American Literature Forum 18:2 (1984). 78-81.

Stevenson, Rosemary. Black Women In America, An Historical
Encyclopedia. Brooklyn, NY: Carlson Pub., 1993. 208-10.

Zaki, Hoda. "Utopia, Dystopia, and Ideology in the Science Fiction of
Octavia Butler." Science Fiction Studies 17:2 (1990). 239-251.

Octavia Butler Resources

McCaffery, Larry. Across the Wounded Galaxies: Interviews with Contemporary American Science Fiction Writers. University of Illinois Press, 1990, Urbana, IL. Pages 54-70.

Antczak, Janice. "Octavia Butler: New Designs for a Challenging Future." in African-American Voices In Young Adult Literature, eds. Smith, Karen Patricia. The Scarcrow Press, Inc. 1994, Metuchen, NJ.

Butler, Octavia E. "Positive Obsession" and "Furor Scribendi" in Bloodchild and Other Stories, Four Walls Eight Windows, 1995, New York, NY.

"Octavia Butler" in Contempory Black Biography, Vol. 8. eds. Mabunda, L. Mpho. Gale Research Inc. 1995, Detroit, MI. Pages 38-41

Govan, Sandra. "Octavia E. Butler" in Notable Black American Women, edited by Smith, Jessie Carney. Gale Research Inc. 1992. Detroit, MI. Pages 144-147

"Octavia E. Butler" in African American Biography, Vol. 1. U-X-L Gale Research Inc. 1994. Detroit, MI. Pages 109-111

"Octavia E. Butler" in The African-American Almanac. eds. Estell, Kenneth. Gale Research Inc, 1994. Detroit, MI. Page 823

Stevenson, Rosemary. "Butler, Octavia E." in Black Women in America. eds. Hine, Darlene-Clark. Carlson Publishing, 1993. Brooklyn, NY. Pages 208-210

O'Connor, Margaret Anne. "Octavia E. Butler" in Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 33. eds. Davis, Thadious M. & Trudier Harris. Gale Research, Inc. 1984. Detroit, MI. Pages 35-41

     

Wild Seed
Purchase Octavia Butler books
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/butler/butler_octavia0.html

The Xenogenesis Series
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/butler/butler_octavia_xenogenesis.html

Voices From the Gaps, an instructional World Wide Web site focusing
on the lives and works of women writers of color.
http://english.cla.umn.edu/lkd/vfg/Authors/OctaviaButler

Blood Child

Humans seeking refuge within an alien civilization would need to earn their keep. But what if all they had to trade was themselves? In Octavia Butler's "Bloodchild", humans practice a twisted variation of the oldest profession in trade for their sanctuary with the Tlic. The trade is dangerous, gruesome, and sometimes deadly, but a few must serve so that the rest can live. The chilling saga of a boy's initiation into this world of adult choices is quintessential Butler and won her both the Hugo and Nebula awards. Butler is famous for her novels, tight, compelling full length tales about thought-provoking social and genetic issues. In comparison, "Bloodchild" is like a cask of fine wine distilled down to its essential spirit. It is powerful, short-lived pleasure that burns all the way down.

Bloodchild, the book, collects five short stories and two essays about writing. The selection spans Butler's career, ranging from relatively recent back to the first story she ever sold. A short afterword accompanies each piece, in which Butler describes its genesis and her perspective while writing it. For admirers, like myself, this chance to see the world through Octavian eyes is not to be missed. For those yet unfamiliar with her work a warning: reading this collection will engender a taste for Octavia Butler that will only be satisfied by more. Fortunately, there is more (ten novels; Patternmaster, Mind of My Mind, Survivor, Kindred, Wild Seed, Clay's Ark, Dawn, Adulthood Rites, Imago, and Parable of the Sower).

Blood Child: Four Walls, Eight Windows, New York 1995

Xenogenesis Trilogy

Dawn (1987)
Adulthood Rites(1988)
Imago (1989)

Patternist Series

Wild Seed (1980)
Mind of My Mind (1977)
Patternmaster (1976)
Clay's Ark (1984)
Survivor (1978)

Other Works

Kindred (1976)
Parable of the Sower (1994)
"Speech Sounds" -- appeared in Asimov's Dec. 1983 and Blood Child and Other Stories (1995)
"Blood Child" -- appeared in Asimov's Jun 1984 and Blood Child and Other Stories (1995)
Blood Child and Other Stories (1995)
Blood Child (1984)
Evening and the Morning and the Night (1987)
Near of Kin (1971)
Speech Sounds (1983)
Crossover (1971)
Positive Obsession (1989)
Furor Scibendi (1993)

Criticisms

1.Allison, Dorthy. "The Future of Females: Octavia Butler's Mother Lode." In Reading Black, Reading
Feminist: A Critical Anthology edited by Henry Luis Gates, 471-78. NY: Meridian, 1990.
2.Foster, Frances S. "Octavia Butler's Black Female Future Vision," Extrapolation (1982): pages 37-49
3.Salvaggio, Ruth. "Octavia Butler and the Black Science Fiction Heroine." Black American Literature Forum.
Vol 18, number 2 (1984): pages 78-81.

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