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How Octavia E. Butler mined her boundless curiosity to forge a new vision for humanity

June 22, 2022

in The Conversation   June, 2022

In 2021, Alyssa Collins was awarded a yearlong Octavia E. Butler Fellowship from The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California.

Woman poses in black shirt with one arm on hip.
Alyssa Collins. University of South Carolina

Butler, whose papers are held at the Huntington, was the first science fiction writer to be awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant. A pioneering writer in a genre long dominated by white men, her work explored power structures, shifting definitions of humanity and alternative societies.  

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