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