OctaviaButler.net A fan blog for Octavia E. Butler, writer.

by Fred K.

When I was a sophomore in high school, I was assigned to read Octavia Butler's great novel, Kindred.  I remember thinking that it was a fascinating book, but how much of its meaning I could comprehend as a fifteen-year old, I cannot say.  What I do remember most is that my teacher, Ms. Grist, arranged for Ms. Butler to come to my high school and talk about her work.  Her talk was incredibly inspiring for me.  She believed that anyone could be a writer, and she was incredibly humble.

by Michelle

I just finished Kindred and wanted to join an Octavia Bulter email log of sorts for her upcoming novels.  I was saddened to learn she passed, but in my search came across this site.

by Wrey F., Caguas, Puerto Rico

Octavia Butler’s work redeemed Science Fiction for me in many ways.

As a young, gay, Latino man in love with a genre which constantly betrayed me by making me invisible and unrepresented, Octavia’s work said to me, “I see you.  I recognize you.  I validate you, and I will write about you.”

by Joe D., Shanghai, China and Seattle, Washington

1) I stumbled upon Octavia Butler years ago because I read a book by Orson Scott Card titled How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy.  In this book, Mr. Card uses Ms. Butler's work quite often as a great example of certain writing techniques.  It is quite obvious that he is a huge fan.  If you haven't already, check out this 2001 interview with Mr. Card (http://www.sffworld.com/interview/18p0.html) where in the last question he states, "I would require people who think they hate science fiction to read Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy."

by Georg N., Washington, DC

She had a presence that was more Ananyu than anything else,
with a deep sonorous voice that whispered from a place
that you felt like you remembered that knew you once knew but had forgotten.

Patti from Vancouver, Canada sent a lovely and heartfelt email via the Contact Us page. She wrote:

I stumbled across Parable of the Talents, and then the Sower and was profoundly moved by them both.

Thank you to everyone who has visited, everyone who has told others about this site, and everyone who has linked to OctaviaButler.net. We have made it up to the second page of google searches of "Octavia Butler". A special shout-out to Latesha and to Reader Kay. More posts coming soon!

I’m in grad school, a peculiar land where writers are referred to solely by their last names. However, referring to Ms. Butler as “Butler” seems wrong. To me, she is the matriarch, the woman of the science fiction house– and using just her last name doesn't honor her stature. At the same time, in US culture, fansites usually refer to the s\heroes by their first names, “Oprah” for example. However, I was raised to firstname someone only after one has explicit permission to do so. Even then, we do not firstname elders in public, and cyberspace counts as public. Nevertheless, perhaps soon I will begin to think of Octavia Butler as “Octavia”. But not yet.