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Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler
Luminescent Threads celebrates Octavia E. Butler, a pioneer of the Science Fiction genre who paved the way for future African American writers and other writers of colour.
Original essays and letters sourced and curated for this collection explore Butler's depiction of power relationships, her complex treatment of race and identity, and her impact on feminism and women in Science Fiction.
Follow the luminescent threads that connect Octavia E. Butler and her body of work to the many readers and writers who have found inspiration in her words, and the complex universes she created.
Original essays and letters sourced and curated for this collection explore Butler's depiction of power relationships, her complex treatment of race and identity, and her impact on feminism and women in Science Fiction.
Follow the luminescent threads that connect Octavia E. Butler and her body of work to the many readers and writers who have found inspiration in her words, and the complex universes she created.
434 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2017
24 people are currently reading
575 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
February 17, 2018
This book drives home, once again, what a tremendous loss Octavia E. Butler's death was. Much has been made about how her "Parable" books predicted, in many respects, the rise of our execrable President. I wish Octavia was here to commiserate with the rest of us about his election, and write thoughtful, heartfelt essays about what to do next and how to go on...but the writers in this collection seem eminently capable of picking up her torch and carrying it.
Some of the essays here brings the reader to tears, with so many people of color talking about what Octavia Butler, an African-American woman writing powerful, feminist science fiction, means to them. Essay after essay, relating how a young person of color saw no one who looked like him or her in any of the SF they read...until they picked up Kindred, or Wild Seed. Some of the most affecting pieces are in Section Four, "I Am an Octavia E. Butler Scholar," which are essays from people of color who won the scholarship to Clarion (the famed writing workshop where Butler got her start) established in Butler's name. This book is sad, but it is also a joy to read, and I hope it finds a wider audience.
Some of the essays here brings the reader to tears, with so many people of color talking about what Octavia Butler, an African-American woman writing powerful, feminist science fiction, means to them. Essay after essay, relating how a young person of color saw no one who looked like him or her in any of the SF they read...until they picked up Kindred, or Wild Seed. Some of the most affecting pieces are in Section Four, "I Am an Octavia E. Butler Scholar," which are essays from people of color who won the scholarship to Clarion (the famed writing workshop where Butler got her start) established in Butler's name. This book is sad, but it is also a joy to read, and I hope it finds a wider audience.
Read
August 15, 2017I am really proud to be a VERY tiny part of this amazing book written in honor of Octavia Butler. (In my own essay, I talk about the influence she had on me as a teacher at Clarion West. I am so grateful to her for it and always will be. And if you haven't read her books yet? READ THEM. She was AMAZING. My very favorite of all of her books is Kindred, but every single one is striking and powerful and thought-provoking.)
April 20, 2018
This book is a celebration of Octavia E. Butler as an author, a visionary thinker, a person who never failed to encourage others to dare and create. It is heart-deep and reaches out to people from different backgrounds, different generations, cultures, zeitgeists. It was a pleasure to join this celebration as a reader.
April 3, 2020
A wonderful collection of letters from writers to Octavia Butler celebrating her life and influence. Each letter is both a testament to her influence and an insight into each of the writers. The letters were mostly written in 2016 nearly a decade after her death and are a bit of a snapshot of that moment in time as well (just after the Nov election). Reading this in 2020 while sheltering in place has been difficult if also ultimately hopeful.
July 22, 2018
Catching a glimpse of someone's life through others' impressions of them can be a fraught exercise. But this collection of letters to, essays about and an interview with Octavia E. Butler offers a multitude of perspectives -- friends, students, and readers, forming a picture that may not be complete, but is comprehensive. A lovely, timely tribute to a visionary writer.
August 22, 2018
Recommended reading for all fans of Octavia E. Butler.
April 2, 2018
Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler, edited by Alexandra Pierce and Mimi Mondal, is a collection of tributes, homages, memories, essays and other writings in honour of this vastly influential, respected and beloved author. It follows in the vein of other recent collections honouring James Tiptree Jr, aka Alice Sheldon, and Samuel “Chip” Delany.
Alexandra Pierce says in her Introduction to the collection:
“This book collects some of the ways people relate and connect to Butler, with each section’s title a quote from a letter or essay within it. The first section, ‘Your work is a river I come home to’, focuses on how Butler has inspired people: in their work, in their lives. In the second, which uses a line from Butler’s own essay ‘Positive Obsessions’, authors reflect on systemic and current political issues that Butler either commented on or would have, were she still alive. ‘Love lingers in between dog-eared pages’ includes letters and essays mainly interested in Butler’s fiction—from Kindred to Xenogenesis to Fledgling—with reactions, arguments, and reflections on her work. Next, in ‘I am an Octavia E. Butler Scholar’, are letters from some of the Octavia E. Butler Scholars: Clarion and Clarion West students who received the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship, set up by the Carl Brandon Society in Butler’s honour after her death. The following chapter fits neatly after the Clarion one: ‘Forget talent. There is only the work’. It features writers reflecting on how Butler influenced their writing through tutoring at Clarion or otherwise. The subsequent section, ‘I love you across oceans, across generations, across lives’ includes, broadly speaking, love letters. They recount ways in which Butler and her work changed something about the writers in situations as individual as the people describing them. The book is rounded out with a memorial that appeared in Science Fiction Studies in 2010, highlighting Butler’s many contributions to science fiction as well as examining how Butler has been studied. And we end with Octavia Butler’s own words, in an interview with Stephen W. Potts from 1996. It was important to us we allow Butler to speak for herself.”
Butler’s work has always been important to me; like so many others, I count her as one of my favourite authors, someone whose work has not only entertained but challenged and inspired me. One of the most important things to me about Butler’s work is how unapologetically political she is, in the broadest sense of examining existing power relations and social injustice, and imagining ways to survive, resist, oppose, change, create a more just and community-oriented world. That’s a feeling shared by many of those who contributed to this volume.
Mimi Mondal writes in her Introduction about the experience of editing this volume in the aftermath of the 2016 US elections, of being an immigrant from India, who had seen the country of her birth elect a “right-wing religious demagogue” in 2014.
“I remember staying curled up in bed way past daytime on November 8, trying to grasp for a reason to get up and finding none, absolutely none. My landlord at the time, an otherwise extremely active and optimistic gay man in his early fifties, was lying crumpled in the other bedroom. My mother, on the other end of a cross-continental phone call, was advising me to stay indoors, in case there was backlash in the streets. Where was I going to go now? What was the point of doing anything, writing anything, believing anything? Someone like me wasn’t wanted anywhere—not back at home, not even in this other country which had taken so much of my faith and love. Once again, I was back to being a number: the gunk that needed to be drained out of the swamp, denied visas to stay or work, turned back from airports, put on the other side of a wall, and made to pay for it too.
It was through this endless numbness that I walked into this project. I felt barely functional, but I took it up because I had read and loved more of Octavia’s work in the meantime, because I had never stopped feeling grateful for the scholarship, because I had to keep my brain and my hand going. I had been an editor before. Even on a really bad day when nothing else made sense, I could mechanically line-edit pages and pages of text. I did not expect this anthology to hold me together, make me cry tears of gratefulness, help me draw strength and hope, through the next few months as wave after wave of bad news kept hitting. I expected these letters to fondly reminisce about a favourite author whom some of the writers may have met, but I did not expect unrestrained conversation about politics, or avowals of continued resistance and solidarity. I expected to help create a tribute volume, something elegantly detached and intellectual that went well with the muted shades of libraries and halls of fame, but the letters in this anthology are alive, bleeding, screaming, urgent—in a way that reflects my own state of mind at these times.”
These are the things that Butler calls forth from us, the passions for justice, for resistance, for struggle, for speaking and writing and performing truth in the face of unbridled arrogance, privilege and power.
In essays and more personal narratives, writers such as Andrea Hairston, Nisi Shawl, Karen Lord, Katheen Kayembe, Rachel Swirsky, Steven Barnes and Nnedi Okorafor - to name only a few - discuss Butler’s work, and talk with passion about what Butler meant, and means, to them. In turn, their words help the reader to clarify and expand on what Butler and her work mean to us.
She was genius, and giant, and she left us such generous gifts.
Alexandra Pierce says in her Introduction to the collection:
“This book collects some of the ways people relate and connect to Butler, with each section’s title a quote from a letter or essay within it. The first section, ‘Your work is a river I come home to’, focuses on how Butler has inspired people: in their work, in their lives. In the second, which uses a line from Butler’s own essay ‘Positive Obsessions’, authors reflect on systemic and current political issues that Butler either commented on or would have, were she still alive. ‘Love lingers in between dog-eared pages’ includes letters and essays mainly interested in Butler’s fiction—from Kindred to Xenogenesis to Fledgling—with reactions, arguments, and reflections on her work. Next, in ‘I am an Octavia E. Butler Scholar’, are letters from some of the Octavia E. Butler Scholars: Clarion and Clarion West students who received the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship, set up by the Carl Brandon Society in Butler’s honour after her death. The following chapter fits neatly after the Clarion one: ‘Forget talent. There is only the work’. It features writers reflecting on how Butler influenced their writing through tutoring at Clarion or otherwise. The subsequent section, ‘I love you across oceans, across generations, across lives’ includes, broadly speaking, love letters. They recount ways in which Butler and her work changed something about the writers in situations as individual as the people describing them. The book is rounded out with a memorial that appeared in Science Fiction Studies in 2010, highlighting Butler’s many contributions to science fiction as well as examining how Butler has been studied. And we end with Octavia Butler’s own words, in an interview with Stephen W. Potts from 1996. It was important to us we allow Butler to speak for herself.”
Butler’s work has always been important to me; like so many others, I count her as one of my favourite authors, someone whose work has not only entertained but challenged and inspired me. One of the most important things to me about Butler’s work is how unapologetically political she is, in the broadest sense of examining existing power relations and social injustice, and imagining ways to survive, resist, oppose, change, create a more just and community-oriented world. That’s a feeling shared by many of those who contributed to this volume.
Mimi Mondal writes in her Introduction about the experience of editing this volume in the aftermath of the 2016 US elections, of being an immigrant from India, who had seen the country of her birth elect a “right-wing religious demagogue” in 2014.
“I remember staying curled up in bed way past daytime on November 8, trying to grasp for a reason to get up and finding none, absolutely none. My landlord at the time, an otherwise extremely active and optimistic gay man in his early fifties, was lying crumpled in the other bedroom. My mother, on the other end of a cross-continental phone call, was advising me to stay indoors, in case there was backlash in the streets. Where was I going to go now? What was the point of doing anything, writing anything, believing anything? Someone like me wasn’t wanted anywhere—not back at home, not even in this other country which had taken so much of my faith and love. Once again, I was back to being a number: the gunk that needed to be drained out of the swamp, denied visas to stay or work, turned back from airports, put on the other side of a wall, and made to pay for it too.
It was through this endless numbness that I walked into this project. I felt barely functional, but I took it up because I had read and loved more of Octavia’s work in the meantime, because I had never stopped feeling grateful for the scholarship, because I had to keep my brain and my hand going. I had been an editor before. Even on a really bad day when nothing else made sense, I could mechanically line-edit pages and pages of text. I did not expect this anthology to hold me together, make me cry tears of gratefulness, help me draw strength and hope, through the next few months as wave after wave of bad news kept hitting. I expected these letters to fondly reminisce about a favourite author whom some of the writers may have met, but I did not expect unrestrained conversation about politics, or avowals of continued resistance and solidarity. I expected to help create a tribute volume, something elegantly detached and intellectual that went well with the muted shades of libraries and halls of fame, but the letters in this anthology are alive, bleeding, screaming, urgent—in a way that reflects my own state of mind at these times.”
These are the things that Butler calls forth from us, the passions for justice, for resistance, for struggle, for speaking and writing and performing truth in the face of unbridled arrogance, privilege and power.
In essays and more personal narratives, writers such as Andrea Hairston, Nisi Shawl, Karen Lord, Katheen Kayembe, Rachel Swirsky, Steven Barnes and Nnedi Okorafor - to name only a few - discuss Butler’s work, and talk with passion about what Butler meant, and means, to them. In turn, their words help the reader to clarify and expand on what Butler and her work mean to us.
She was genius, and giant, and she left us such generous gifts.
June 5, 2021
If, like me, you're a fan who still feels biting sorrow about Butler's untimely death in 2006, or if you just want some insight into this great author, I recommend checking out this volume. The letters to Butler do get a bit redundant (I admit I skipped a bunch of them), but I did enjoy a lot of the letters, especially those from other authors I admire. But there are also a few insightful academic articles and one interview with Butler herself. Overall the impression I get from this volume is that we have only yet begun to explore the depth and complexity of Butler and her work and how she continues to influence the genre and the larger society: all that she touched, she changed.
own-but-unread
April 4, 20182018 Hugo Finalist for Best Related Work
June 3, 2018
total must-read for octavia fans: webs of her impact on other writers, stories about her & her life & approach to writing from those who knew her, and a little lit crit.
January 4, 2019
I loved this tribute to one of my all time favorite writers.
5.0 out of 5
5.0 out of 5
March 27, 2019
Reading the reactions and emotions so many authors have about Butler made me want to reread all her works. Again.
January 23, 2022
I feel a bit bad to leave a harsh review of this book. It's a non-fiction collection of letters to Octavia Butler (after her passing) and essays about Octavia Butler's work. Truthfully, I only made it about halfway through the collection before giving up on it and letting my library loan on it expire.
I am a huge fan of Octavia Butler (although I've only read 4 of her books so far - since there aren't exactly more forthcoming I'm trying to space out reading them). Clearly, the authors who contributed to this book are also huge fans.
The problem, for me, is that the letters and commentary are almost the opposite of Butler's work. Butler's work is strangely prescient and ages incredibly well and it's fascinating. Her worlds drawn me in like few others.
These letters and essays often felt very dated (even though only a few years old) and repetitive, treading over the same sentiments and points already presented by other authors who contributed to the collection. One of the pieces I enjoyed the most was actually a scientific paper that had been presented at a conference many years in the past. It would have been interesting to see commentary or an update on it. I thought it was interesting that the older entry seemed to hold up better (in my reading) than the more modern letters written directly in response to Butler's passing.
Anyhow, I love the idea of this book, but I didn't find myself as drawn in by the contents. I will keep looking for a better match for me for my SFF-related non-fiction book this year!
I am a huge fan of Octavia Butler (although I've only read 4 of her books so far - since there aren't exactly more forthcoming I'm trying to space out reading them). Clearly, the authors who contributed to this book are also huge fans.
The problem, for me, is that the letters and commentary are almost the opposite of Butler's work. Butler's work is strangely prescient and ages incredibly well and it's fascinating. Her worlds drawn me in like few others.
These letters and essays often felt very dated (even though only a few years old) and repetitive, treading over the same sentiments and points already presented by other authors who contributed to the collection. One of the pieces I enjoyed the most was actually a scientific paper that had been presented at a conference many years in the past. It would have been interesting to see commentary or an update on it. I thought it was interesting that the older entry seemed to hold up better (in my reading) than the more modern letters written directly in response to Butler's passing.
Anyhow, I love the idea of this book, but I didn't find myself as drawn in by the contents. I will keep looking for a better match for me for my SFF-related non-fiction book this year!
June 17, 2018
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3011065.html
Luminescent Threads, in a similar format to Letters to Tiptree and sharing an editor, brings together short pieces by almost fifty writers about the effect that Butler's writing had on them, including several who have attended the Clarion writers' workshop thanks to the scholarship established in Butler's name. Most of the pieces were written in the immediate aftermath of the Trump victory and inauguration, and many of the writers were still reeling in shock and invoking Butler, who foresaw the sort of regime that Trump would like to lead, as an inspiration in dark times.
I have to say that I was less satisfied with Luminescent Threads than I was with Letters to Tiptree. I felt that there was less internal organisation - it might have been more interesting to group the scholarly essays separately from the more personal letters. I also really missed Butler's own voice - Letters to Tiptree included a number of letters from Tiptree, whereas here we hear from Butler only in one short interview at the end. I salute the commitment of the editors and contributors, but the structure didn't quite work for me.
Luminescent Threads, in a similar format to Letters to Tiptree and sharing an editor, brings together short pieces by almost fifty writers about the effect that Butler's writing had on them, including several who have attended the Clarion writers' workshop thanks to the scholarship established in Butler's name. Most of the pieces were written in the immediate aftermath of the Trump victory and inauguration, and many of the writers were still reeling in shock and invoking Butler, who foresaw the sort of regime that Trump would like to lead, as an inspiration in dark times.
I have to say that I was less satisfied with Luminescent Threads than I was with Letters to Tiptree. I felt that there was less internal organisation - it might have been more interesting to group the scholarly essays separately from the more personal letters. I also really missed Butler's own voice - Letters to Tiptree included a number of letters from Tiptree, whereas here we hear from Butler only in one short interview at the end. I salute the commitment of the editors and contributors, but the structure didn't quite work for me.
August 15, 2020
i wasn't sure about writing this review or not, but here we go! luminescent threads really is a beautiful, beautiful book, undoubtedly so. but it's also kind of... samey? and it's no one's fault, really, it really isn't, every letter here is heartfelt and sweet, and i truly believe that every author involved spoke from the heart, but it does get a little tiring after the tenth narration of very similar experiences.
having said that... octavia butler. what can i say? she just had it, she did. what i wouldn't give to have met octavia butler, to attend one of her writing classes. dear octavia... thanks for everything; you are everything. can't wait to read more of your work.
having said that... octavia butler. what can i say? she just had it, she did. what i wouldn't give to have met octavia butler, to attend one of her writing classes. dear octavia... thanks for everything; you are everything. can't wait to read more of your work.
dnf
November 1, 2019DNFed 2 November 2019
There's nothing wrong with this book, it's just that I don't think I've read enough Butler myself to fully appreciate all the tributes, and there is a certain sameness to them, because Butler and her work reached so any people. I'm tidying up my currently-reading pile as we get closer to the end of the year and I recognise I'm not going to get back to this one.
Don't let my stopping, stop you. This is not a bad book.
There's nothing wrong with this book, it's just that I don't think I've read enough Butler myself to fully appreciate all the tributes, and there is a certain sameness to them, because Butler and her work reached so any people. I'm tidying up my currently-reading pile as we get closer to the end of the year and I recognise I'm not going to get back to this one.
Don't let my stopping, stop you. This is not a bad book.
dnf
October 16, 2020I was expecting more along the lines of creative non-fic, and this is not that. Some interesting essays, but not something I'm ever going to commit to reading all the way through.
June 19, 2024
Quite the tribute to an author that broke barriers. She was and continues to be such an inspiration to other people of colour!
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews