February 27, 2006

Rest in Peace: Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler passed away over the weekend. She had planned to keep writing into her eighties, but the dream of the MacArthur Genius Award winner - a woman whose barrier-breaking, genre-expanding writing inspired the dreams of so many other writers - was cut short. She was only 58.

Her books always left me a little bit sad and a little bit thoughtful when I finished them. I was a young teen when I discovered her books in the abysmally limited sci-fi section of my local library. She rocked my world. Butler was the only sci-fi author I'd ever read who dared approach race, sex, and the societal intersections and inequities of the two with something other than a glancing nod.

Added to that, she was a black woman writing sci-fi at a time when I didn't know any other girls who even read sci-fi. She was, and is, an inspiration.
Posted by sk :: 2/27/2006 :: 0 comments

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