Scholarship and criticism on Octavia Butler

Scholarship and criticism

Dorothy Allison

• "The Future of Female: Octavia Butler's Mother Lode." In Reading Black, Reading Feminist: A Critical Anthology, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 471-78. New York: Meridian, 1990.

Janice Antczak.

• "Octavia E. Butler: New Designs for a Challenging Future" in African-American Voices in Young Adult Literature: Tradition, Transition, Transformation edited by Karen Patricia Smith (Metuchen: Scarecrow, 1994): pp. 311-336.

Beal, Frances M.

• "Black Women and the Science Fiction Genre: Interview with Octavia Butler." Black Scholar Volume 17 (March-April 1986): pages 14-18.

Bedore, Pamela.

• "Slavery and Symbiosis in Octavia Butler's Kindred." in Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction v. 31, no. 84 (Spring 2002): pp. 73-81.

Bogstad, Janice.

• "Octavia E. Butler and Power Relationships," Janus, 4 (1978-1979): pp. 28-31.

Bonner, Frances.

• "Difference and Desire, Slavery and Seduction: Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis." Foundation no. 48 (1990): pp. 50-62.

Frances Smith Foster.

• "Octavia Butler's Black Female Future Vision." Extrapolation v 23, no. 1 (1982): pages 37-49.

Lisbeth Gant-Britton.

• "Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower: One Alternative to a Futureless Future." in Women of Other Worlds: Excursions through Science Fiction and Feminism, edited by Helen Merrick and Tess Williams, University of Western Australia Press: Nedlands, 1999: pp. 277-294.

Roger Luckhurst.

• "'Horror and Beauty in Rare Combination': The Miscegenate Fictions of Octavia Butler." Women: A Cultural Review, v. 7 no. 1 (1996): pp. 28-38.

Veronica Mixon.

• "Futurist Woman: Octavia Butler." Essence, v. 15 (1979): pp. 12, 15.

Inga M. Muscio.

• "Mind of Her Mind: The Genius of Octavia Butler." Bitch Magazine, No. 15, Winter 2001, p. 36. (Part of Elyce Rae Helford's article in the same issue.)

Cathy Peppers.

• "Dialogic Origins and Alien Identities in Butler's Xenogenesis." Science-Fiction Studies Volume 22, Part 1, Number 65. (March 1995): pages 47 - 62.

Ruth Salvaggio.

• "Octavia Butler and the Black Science Fiction Heroine." Black American Literature Forum. Volume 18, Number 2 (1984): pages 78-81. Four Butler novels.

Ruth Salvaggio, Marleen Barr, and Richard Law.

• Suzy McKee Charnas: Octavia Butler: Joan D. Vinge. Mercer Island, Washington: Starmont, 1986.

Sherley Anne Williams.

• "Sherley Anne Williams on Octavia E. Butler." Ms. Volume 14 (March 1986), pages 70-72.

Hoda Zaki.

• "Utopia, Dystopia, and Ideology in the Science Fiction of Octavia Butler." Science Fiction Studies Volume 17, Part 2 (1990): pages 239-251.

Friend, Beverly.

• "Time Travel as a Feminist Didactic in Works by Phyllis Eisenstein, Marlys Millhiser, and Octavia Butler." Extrapolation Volume 23, Number 1 (Spring 1982): pages 50-55. Discusses Butler's Kindred and other works.

Michael S. Cross

• "Fiction." Library Journal, 102 (Aug. 1977): p. 1982. Review of Octavia Butler, Mind of My Mind.

Govan, Sovan Y.

• "Connections, Links, and Extended Networks: Patterns in Octavia Butler's Science Fiction." Black American Literature Forum. v. 18, no. 2 (1984): pp. 82-87.
• "Homage to Tradition: Octavia Butler Renovates the Historical Novel." Melus. v. 13, nos. 1-2 (1986): pp. 79-96.

Green, Michelle Erica.

• "'There Goes the Neighborhood': Octavia Butler's Demand for Diversity in Utopias." Utopian and Science Fiction by Women: Worlds of Difference, edited by Jane L. Donawerth and Carol A. Kolmerten (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1994): pp. 166-189.

Green, Roland.

• "Adult Fiction," Booklist, 77 (Sept. 1980): p. 29. Reviews Wild Seed by Octavia Butler, and discusses Kindred.

Helford, Elyce Rae.

• "Survival and the Science Fiction Heroine: The Ethnic Women Warriors of Octavia E. Butler and Misha." Women's Caucus Workshop, South Atlantic Modern Language Assocation Conference. Atlanta, GA; November 1993.
• "'Would You Really Rather Die Than Bear My Children?' The Construction of Gender, Race, and Species in Octavia E. Butler's 'Bloodchild.'" African American Review v. 28, no. 2 (1994) pp. 259-271.
• "A Galaxy of Our Own: Searching for Black Women in Science-Fiction Film." (Includes an homage to Octavia Butler by Inga M. Muscio.) Bitch Magazine, No. 15, Winter 2001, pp. 34-37, 88-89.

Janice C. Crosby.

• Cauldron of Changes: Feminist Spirituality in Fantastic Fiction (McFarland: 2000, ISBN 0786408480). Studies on Marion Zimmer Bradley, Kim Chernin, Alice Walker, Mercedes Lackey, Patricia Kennealy, Gael Baudino, Octavia Butler, Lynn Abbey, Joan Vinge, Toni Morrison, Gloria Naylor, Ntozake Shange, and Starhawk.

Johnson, Rebecca O.

• "African American Feminist Science Fiction." Sojourner v. 19, n. 6 (February 1994), pages 12-14. (includes interview with Octavia Butler)

Levy, Michael.

• "Green SF and Eco Feminism." Originally published in IAFA Newsletter, Spring 1989 issues. Reprinted in Robert Collins and Robert Latham, editors, Science Fiction and Fantasy book Review Annual, 1989 Edition (Westport, CN: Meckler, 1990). "Review article of recent work by Octavia Butler, Nancy Kress, Pamela Sargent, and Sheri S. Tepper" -- ML.

Maida, Patricia.

• "Kindred and Dessa Rose: Two Novels That Reinvent Slavery." CEAMagazine: A Journal of the College English Association, Middle Atlantic Group. v. 4, no. 1 (1991): pp. 43-52.

McCaffery, Larry.

• "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler." in Across the Wounded Galaxies: Interviews with Contepmorary American Science Fiction Writers, edited by Larry McCaffery. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1990: pp. 54-70.

See, Lisa.

• "PW Interviews: O. E. Butler." Publishers Weekly Volume 240 (December 13, 1993), pages 50-51.

Shinn, Thelma J. (Dina Sherzer?)

• "The Wise Witches: Black Women Mentors in the Fiction of Octavia Butler," in Conjuring: Black Women, Fiction, and Literary Tradition, edited by Marjorie Pryse and Hortense J. Spillers, Bloomington, Indiana University Press: 1985: pp. 203-215.

Reviews of published fiction

Geraldine Morse.

• "Reviews." Galileo: Magazine of Science and Fiction, v. 9 (1978): p. 86. Review of Survivor by Octavia Butler.

A. Newson.

• "Review of Octavia Butler's Dawn and Adulthood Rites." Black American Literature Forum Volume 23, Number 2 (1989): pages 389-96.

Judith T. Yamamoto.

• "Fiction." Library Journal, v. 104 (Aug. 1979): pp. 1585-1586. Review of Octavia Butler, Kindred.