![]() She was also the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur “genius” fellowship. She was 58 years old.īutler was the first Black woman to win the Hugo and Nebula awards for science-fiction writing. Just three months later, Butler died, on February 24th, 2006, after she fell outside her home outside of Seattle, Washington. In November 2005, she came into Democracy Now!’s old firehouse studio. To mark Black History Month once again, as well as the 25th anniversary of Democracy Now!, we turn now to one of the last television interviews given by the visionary Black science-fiction writer Octavia Butler. And I assumed I could have it.”ĪMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! The Quarantine Report. “I wasn’t being brave or even thoughtful. “I assumed that I could do it,” she said. When asked how she set out to become a science-fiction writer when there were so few examples of Black women working in the genre, Butler said she never doubted her abilities. Her work inspired a new generation of Black science-fiction writers, and she has been called “the Mother of Afrofuturism.” Her 2005 interview with Democracy Now! took place shortly after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and as President George W. Her best-known books include the classics “Kindred,” as well as “Parable of the Sower” and “Parable of the Talents” - two-thirds of a trilogy that was never finished. Butler was the first Black woman to win Hugo and Nebula awards for science-fiction writing and the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur “genius” fellowship. She spoke to Democracy Now! in November 2005, just three months before she died on February 24, 2006, at age 58. As Democracy Now! marks 25 years on the air, we are revisiting some of the best and most impactful moments from the program’s history, including one of the last television interviews given by the visionary Black science-fiction writer Octavia Butler.
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