Conversations with Octavia Butler

by Conseula Francis

Overview

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) spent the majority of her prolific career as the only major black female author of science fiction. Winner of both the Nebula and Hugo Awards as well as a MacArthur "genius" grant, the first for a science fiction writer, Butler created worlds that challenged notions of race, sex, gender, and humanity. Whether in the postapocalyptic future of the Parable stories, in the human inability to assimilate change and difference in the Xenogenesis books, or in the destructive sense of superiority in the Patternist series, Butler held up a mirror, reflecting what is beautiful, corrupt, worthwhile, and damning about the world we inhabit. In interviews ranging from 1980 until just before her sudden death in 2006, Conversations with Octavia Butler reveals a writer very much aware of herself as the "rare bird" of science fiction even as she shows frustration with the constant question, "How does it feel to be the only one?" Whether discussing humanity's biological imperatives or the difference between science fiction and fantasy or the plight of the working poor in America, Butler emerges in these interviews as funny, intelligent, complicated, and intensely original. Conseula Francis is associate professor of English and director of African American studies at the College of Charleston. Her work has been published in the Langston Hughes Review.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781604732764
Publisher:	University Press of Mississippi
Publication date:	12/17/2009
Series:	Literary Conversations Series
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Conseula Francis is associate professor of English and director of African American studies at the College of Charleston. Her work has been published in the Langston Hughes Review.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Chronology xv

Sci-Fi Visions: An Interview with Octavia Butler Rosalie G. Harrison 3

An Interview with Octavia E. Butler Larry McCaffery Jim McMenamin 10

An Interview with Octavia E. Butler Randall Kenan 27

PW Interviews: Octavia E. Butler Lisa See 38

Sci-Fi Tales from Octavia E. Butler H. Jerome Jackson 43

Interview with Octavia Butler Jelani Cobb 49

"We Keep Playing the Same Record": A Conversation with Octavia Butler Stephen W. Potts 65

An Interview with Octavia E. Butler Charles Rowell 74

"Radio Imagination": Octavia Butler on the Poetics of Narrative Embodiment Marilyn Mehaffy AnaLouise Keating 98

Congratulations! You've Just Won $295,000: An Interview with Octavia Butler Joan Fry 123

Octavia Butler Mike McGonigal 134

Octavia Butler and Samuel R. Delany MIT Cultural Studies Project 142

Nebula Award Nominee Octavia Butler Is Expanding the Universe of Science-Fiction Readers Jane Burkitt 158

Octavia Butler Juan Williams 161

Octavia E. Butler: Persistence Charles Brown 181

Essay on Racism Scott Simon 189

Big Thinker Susan Stamberg 193

The Lit Interview: Octavia Butler Daniel Burton-Rose 196

A Conversation with Octavia Butler Nick Dichario 206

Interview: Octavia E. Butler John C. Snider 213

Octavia Butler's Kindred Turns Twenty-five Allison Keyes 219

Science Fiction Writer Octavia Butler on Race, Global Warming, and Religion Juan Gonzalez Amy Goodman 222

Interviewing the Oracle: Octavia Butler Kazembe Balagun 226

Index 229