R.I.P., Octavia Butler
For those who haven't heard: sf writer Octavia E. Butler died on Saturday, age 58.
Here are some relevant links (I haven't read/heard all of these yet, so can't vouch for the quality of all of them):
- Seattle Times obituary, including some quotes from Harlan Ellison and Steven Barnes.
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer obituary, including more detailed quotes from Barnes and Tananarive Due. It suggests that the cause of death was falling and hitting her head; earlier reports had suggested a possible stroke.
- AP obituary apparently also published in the Seattle P-I. And another version of the AP obituary in USA Today.
- Brief SFWA obituary.
- Butler interview from Indypendent from a couple weeks ago.
- Edward Champion podcast interview of Butler, apparently from December of 2005.
- Heather Shaw's SH article about Butler's work from December of 2000.
- Brief author bio from about five years ago.
In that author bio, Butler wrote: "I'm a 53-year-old writer who can remember being a 10-year-old writer and who expects someday to be an 80-year-old writer." I'm sad she won't get that chance.