Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Butler, Octavia - Octavia Butler with Frances M. Beal (interview date March/April 1986)

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Octavia Butler with Frances M. Beal (interview date March/April 1986)

SOURCE: "Black Women and the Science Fiction Genre," in Black Scholar, Vol. 17, No. 2, March/April, 1986, pp. 14-8.

[In the following interview, Butler discusses the science fiction genre, her career, and themes in her work.]

Octavia Butler is a Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction writer. One of very few black writers who have selected this genre as their focus, she is a Clarion Science Fiction Writers' Workshop graduate. Her books include, Clays Ark, Kindred, Mind of My Mind, Patternmaster, Wild Seed and Survivor. This interview was conducted by Black Scholar Associate Editor Frances M. Beal on October 29, 1985, in East Lansing, Michigan.

[Beal:] Why did you decide to turn your writing skills to the science fiction genre?

[Butler:] I didn't decide to become a science fiction writer. It just happened. I was...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Ruth Salvaggio (essay date Summer 1984)
   2. Octavia Butler with Frances M. Beal (interview date March/April 1986)
   3. Sandra Y. Govan (essay date Spring-Summer 1986)
   4. Adele S. Newson (review date Summer 1989)
   5. Frances Bonner (essay date Spring 1990)
   6. Hoda M. Zaki (essay date July 1990)
   7. Octavia Butler with Randall Kenan (interview date Spring 1991)
   8. Orson Scott Card (review date January 1992)
   9. Michelle Erica Green (essay date 1994)
   10. Rebecca O. Johnson (review date February 1994)
   11. Elyce Rae Helford (essay date Summer 1994)
   12. Hoda Zaki (review date July 1994)
   13. Cathy Peppers (essay date March 1995)
   14. Jim Miller (review date February/March 1996)
   15. Danille Taylor-Guthrie (review date 31 March 1996)
   16. Octavia Butler with Stephen W. Potts (interview date November 1996)
   17. Madelyn Jablon (essay date 1997)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright

1. Octavia Butler