Science fiction writer Octavia Butler said that though she is
considered a feminist writer, her intention is to write ‘as though women
were as free as men tend to be.’
MORE INFO MORE INFO ‘All the Stories are True: African American
Writers Speak’
An Evening with Octavia E. Butler and
Samuel R. Delany
Friday, Nov. 19
7 p.m.
National Museum of Natural History,
Baird Auditorium
10th Street & Constitution Ave., NW
202-287-3382
Anacostia Museum & Center for African American
History & Culture
1901 Fort Place, SE
Anacostia.si.edu
Samuel R. Delany and Octavia E. Butler are prolific science fiction writers with
large and devoted fan bases worldwide. They also are both African American, as
well as gay.
Both writers are scheduled to discuss their craft at a free event in Washington,
D.C., on Nov. 19 and in their work neither shies away from addressing issues
related to race and sexual orientation, topics that often prove tough for people
to address openly.
“I stumbled onto [writing],” Butler, 57, said from her home in
Seattle. “I was a storyteller to myself when I was 4, and I liked it so
much that I kept doing it. And eventually, I wrote the stories down and enjoyed
that.”
Delany, a 62-year-old English and creative writing professor at Temple University
in Philadelphia, said he started out as an avid reader and began writing his
own stories later. He found reading other people’s stories so enjoyable,
that “writing seemed like the next most logical thing to do.”
Delany’s influence on the fantasy/science fiction genre began as a kind
of happy accident. He said the first of his short stories to be published just
happened to be science fiction. People bought it, and they liked it, so he wrote
more.
In addition to discussing their craft at the Smithsonian Institution’s
National Museum of Natural History, Delany and Butler are among nine authors
featured in “All the Stories are True: African American Writers Speak.”
This exhibition, which opened in Washington in June, features filmed interviews
with professional writers and will be on display at the Smithsonian’s
Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture until Dec.
31.
E. Ethelbert Miller, a local poet, author and anthologist, is the guest curator
for the exhibition. He said a literary renaissance has been taking place within
African-American culture since the ’80s, and more books by black authors
are being sold nationwide today than ever before.
In addition to Delany and Butler, other writers featured in “All the
Stories are True” include: Valerie Boyd, author of “Wrapped in Rainbows:
The Life of Zora Neale Hurston,” Kenneth Carroll, the D.C.-based author
of “So What: For the White Dude Who Said This Ain’t Poetry,”
and Haitian-born writer Edwidge Danticat, author of “Breath, Eyes, Memory,”
among other books. Other authors featured in the exhibition are: Eloise Greenfield,
winner of the National Council of Teachers English Award for Excellence in Poetry
for Children; Charles Johnson, a novelist, essayist and cartoonist; Dolores
Kendrick, poet laureate of the District of Columbia; and Walter Dean Myer, whose
work has focused on books for young readers.
Delany said he finds it humbling that the literary community has noticed him
at all. His first novel, “The Jewels of Aptor” was published in
1962, when he was 19. Other works by Delany include: “Babel-17,”
“The Einstein Intersection,” “Dhalgren,” “Stars
in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand,” and his memoir, “The Motion of
Light in Water.”
Samuel Delany,a professor at Temple
University whose books explore fantasy and science fiction topics, said
he finds it humbling that the literary community has noticed him at all.
His first novel, ‘The Jewels of Aptor,’ was published in 1962,
when he was 19.
Butler, whose literary works include “Crossover,” “Patternmaster,”
“Kindred,” and “The Parable of the Sower,” said that
although she is now known to many as a feminist author, she never set out to
write with feminist issues in mind. “What I set out to do was write as
though women were as free as men tend to be,” she said. “I decided
not to write about feminism, but to write about free women. It’s nice
to read about women who are able to do what they need to do.”
Exploring other worlds
Both authors said that they love the escape that writing provides, and the opportunities
they find in their work to explore other worlds and perspectives. Butler stressed
that writing gave her a reason to keep learning, after finishing college.
“[Being a writer] allows me to go where I will, to be a kind of paid
dilettante,” she said. “Whatever I stick my nose into, it’s
OK because, ‘Gee, I’m working.’”
Delany described writing as, “a chance to live deeply and richly inside
your own imagination.” The most challenging part of being a writer, he
said, is “to take things you see in the real world and write about them
so that something of the import they have to you in the real world comes across.”
During their discussion at the event, the authors plan to talk about how they
develop plots and characters, as well as their use of contemporary events to
create scenes involving future worlds. Afterwards, both plan to sign copies
of their work.
Delany, who participates in public talks anywhere from three to six times each
year, said he still finds it humbling to discuss his writing in front of large
groups of people.
Butler, on the other hand, says she rarely gets nervous these days. Years of
speaking at science fiction conventions and other public events have taught
her how to sense what an audience wants. A bored audience soon gives way to
an empty room, she said.
“Most of us have big egos,” she joked. “And we want our audiences
to hang around.”
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