#sobeitseetoit

Happy Birthday, Octavia E. Butler!

Award-winning science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006) would have celebrated her 70th birthday today. Butler left her papers to The Huntington, and nearly 100 items from that archive are on view through Aug. 7, 2017, in the exhibition “Octavia E. Butler: Telling My Stories” in the Library West Hall.

Tomorrow, Ayana Jamieson and Moya Bailey convene a daylong conference at The Huntington focusing on Butler’s legacy. Find out more about the conference in “Mining the Archive of Octavia E. Butler” on VERSO.

This Saturday (6/24/17), stop by our family-friendly pop-up station near the entrance to the exhibition to learn more about Butler and participate in a variety of activities related to themes in the collection and exhibition.

And all month long we invite you to share your hopes for the future and affirmations that keep you going using the hashtag #SoBeItSeeToIt

images: Octavia E. Butler, ca. 1988, © Miriam Berkley. For alternative images and questions regarding usage, please contact photographer Miriam Berkley.

An envelope Butler used to file away the articles she collected on climate and the environment beginning in the 1980s. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Copyright Estate of Octavia E. Butler.

Science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006) would have celebrated her 70th birthday later this month on June 22. Amongst Butler’s papers here at The Huntington, some of which are now on view in the exhibition “Octavia E. Butler: Telling My Stories,” are scores of affirmations she wrote to herself and copious notes she took while constructing worlds and imagining futures for her novels and short stories.

Each Saturday in June, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., we’ll be hosting a family-friendly pop-up station near the entrance to the Butler exhibition where you can participate in a variety of activities related to themes in the Butler collection and exhibition.

And all month long we invite you to share your hopes for the future and affirmations that keep you going using the hashtag #SoBeItSeeToIt

Has buying one of our Octavia E. Butler totes been on your to-do list?  See to it!

Sale of these totes helps support the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship for the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers' Workshop.