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A Handful of Earth, a Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler
A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler offers a blueprint for a creative life from the perspective of award-winning science-fiction writer and "MacArthur Genius" Octavia E. Butler. It is a collection of ideas about how to look, listen, breathe--how to be in the world. This book is about the creative process, but not on the page; its canvas is much larger. Author Lynell George not only engages the world that shaped Octavia E. Butler, she also explores the very specific processes through which Butler shaped herself--her unique process of self-making. It's about creating a life with what little you have--hand-me-down books, repurposed diaries, journals, stealing time to write in the middle of the night, making a small check stretch--bit by bit by bit. Highly visual and packed with photographs of Butler's ephemera, A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky draws the reader into Butler's world, creating a sense of unmatched intimacy with the deeply private writer.
There's a great resurgence of interest in Butler's work. Readers have been turning to her writing to make sense of contemporary chaos, to find a plot point that might bring clarity or calm. Her books have become the centerpiece of book-group discussions, while universities and entire cities have chosen her titles to anchor "Big Read," "Freshman Read," and "One Book/One City" programs. The interest has gone beyond the printed page; Ava DuVernay is adapting Butler's novel Dawn for television. A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky brings Octavia's prescient wisdom and careful thinking out of the novel and into the world.
A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky will be beloved by both scholars and fans of Butler, as well as aspiring writers and creatives who are looking for a model or a spark of inspiration. It offers a visual album of a creative life--a map that others can follow. Butler once wrote that science fiction was simply "a handful of earth, a handful of sky, and everything in between." This book offers a slice of the in between.
Lynell George is a journalist and essayist. After/Image: Los Angeles Outside the Frame is her first book of essays and photography, exploring the city where she grew up. As a staff writer for both the Los Angeles Times and L.A. Weekly, she focused on social issues, human behavior, visual arts, music, and literature. She taught journalism at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, in 2013 was named a USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Fellow, and in 2017 received the Huntington Library's Alan Jutzi Fellowship for her studies of California writer Octavia E. Butler. A contributing arts-and-culture columnist for KCETArtbound, her commentary has also been featured in numerous news and feature outlets including Boom: A Journal of California, Smithsonian, KPCC The Frame, Los Angeles Review of Books, Vibe, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Essence, Black Clock, and Ms. Her liner notes for Otis Redding Live at the Whisky a Go Go earned a 2018 GRAMMY award.
There's a great resurgence of interest in Butler's work. Readers have been turning to her writing to make sense of contemporary chaos, to find a plot point that might bring clarity or calm. Her books have become the centerpiece of book-group discussions, while universities and entire cities have chosen her titles to anchor "Big Read," "Freshman Read," and "One Book/One City" programs. The interest has gone beyond the printed page; Ava DuVernay is adapting Butler's novel Dawn for television. A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky brings Octavia's prescient wisdom and careful thinking out of the novel and into the world.
A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky will be beloved by both scholars and fans of Butler, as well as aspiring writers and creatives who are looking for a model or a spark of inspiration. It offers a visual album of a creative life--a map that others can follow. Butler once wrote that science fiction was simply "a handful of earth, a handful of sky, and everything in between." This book offers a slice of the in between.
Lynell George is a journalist and essayist. After/Image: Los Angeles Outside the Frame is her first book of essays and photography, exploring the city where she grew up. As a staff writer for both the Los Angeles Times and L.A. Weekly, she focused on social issues, human behavior, visual arts, music, and literature. She taught journalism at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, in 2013 was named a USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Fellow, and in 2017 received the Huntington Library's Alan Jutzi Fellowship for her studies of California writer Octavia E. Butler. A contributing arts-and-culture columnist for KCETArtbound, her commentary has also been featured in numerous news and feature outlets including Boom: A Journal of California, Smithsonian, KPCC The Frame, Los Angeles Review of Books, Vibe, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Essence, Black Clock, and Ms. Her liner notes for Otis Redding Live at the Whisky a Go Go earned a 2018 GRAMMY award.
5 pages, Audible Audio
First published October 20, 2020
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1300 people want to read
About the author
Lynell George
10 books72 followersLynell George is a Los Angeles-based writer. A former staff writer for both the Los Angeles Times and L.A. Weekly, she focused on social issues, human behavior, as well as visual arts, music, and literature. She is the author of three books of nonfiction: The Hugo Award-finalist, "A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler," "After/Image: Los Angeles Outside the Frame, and "No Crystal Stair: African Americans in the City of Angels," a collection of features and essays drawn from her reportage. In 2017 received the Huntington Library’s Alan Jutzi Fellowship for her studies of California writer Octavia E. Butler and won a GRAMMY for "Otis Redding Live At The Whisky A Go Go: The Complete Recordings" in the Best Album Notes category. In 2020 she was awarded a Distinguished Journalist award by Society of Professional Journalists/L.A.
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December 13, 2020
Multitalented journalist and LA flaneur Lynell George has written on everything from jazz (she won a Grammy for her liner notes for "Otis Redding Live at the Whisky A Go Go.") to the history of the Original Green Book (a safe-travel guide for Black travelers in the United States). She becomes obsessed with something--an old building, a certain street corner-- and she has to know more.
The seminal Black science fiction writer Octavia Butler, a MacArthur genius grant recipient and Pasadena native, is currently having a renaissance in our teetering-on-the-apocalypse culture and our heightened awareness of race and the future. In books like The Parable of the Talents and Kindred, her interests in Black history and experience, ecology, anthropology and science all fell into place to create a unique oeuvre.
Butler had long been on George's radar--George's mother, a high school English teacher, had taken her as a teen to see Butler read at a Los Angeles area bookstore. (Butler didn't, in fact, read at these events, but rather conversed with the crowd.), and made a profound impact on George. She followed Butler's career, first as a college student and later as a journalist, periodically attending and covering her events, including the last one--at the Black to the Future Festival in Seattle in 2004, where Butler agreed to give her an interview--but sadly, the author met her death in 2006 before that interview could take place.
Twelve years later, George was commissioned to write a "posthumous interview" with Butler for a major Butler retrospective in Los Angeles. George duly appeared at the Huntington Library, a world-class research library, where the Butler archive is lodged. She could not believe what she found-- hundreds of boxes of her notes, journals, letters, receipts, imaginings, clippings, keepsakes. George ended up not only curating a public exhibition of the archive--which I was fortunate enough to attend--and giving a series of talks, but also penning this unusual book "A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky"--Butler's definition of science fiction.
In this book, George chooses to follow, not the creation of Butler's works, but her creation of herself as a writer. The ignored "tall, plain" Black girl, Estelle, who didn't pay attention in class but was ravenous for the Pasadena Public Library and read her way out of the children's section into the vast spaces of the adult shelves. The struggle against her family's discouragement--in their desire to protect her from disappointment, or perhaps themselves from an uncomfortable confrontation with their own compromises. The very real, day to day battle with financial hardship that is the story of almost every writer--but is rarely discussed, in favor of the pure art--where this is the soil out of which the pure art grows, and so often, prevents the growth, and could easily have done so in Butler's case.
Her archive is the artist herself. The bills and the dreams and the self-talk off the ledge. I have never seen a more naked portrait of the writing life than this archive-based work. People joke about Doestoevsky's grocery bills, but here are the grocery bills, the utilities, the bus pass and the way she used the bus as a time to observe and to write. How she ended up in science fiction. Commitments to self, pep talks. Figuring out how to stay afloat as she wrote, usually beginning at 4 a.m. before she would go to her various usually temporary jobs.
There are pictures that only begin to illustrate the archive, the rescued notebooks she wrote in, the library card, the bus passes, the grocery list written on the back of an envelope containing a phone bill, not just the items but the exact dollars and cents. All must be reckoned with. One of my favorite objects is her "Artistic License"--"Excuses: They drew first blood."
This is the perfect gift book for young writers, and also the not so young, anybody wrestling with the twin anacondas of self-doubt and ambition, of coming from nowhere on your way to somewhere--the Butler archive reveals just how difficult it is to wrangle the self and move forward toward one's goals.
Says George: "But a diary: that too is a form of invention, A dressing room. Here, instead of sketching backdrops and giving characters shape, form and intention, her diary is a safe zone. It is a confidant, a secret chamber within which to try out different guises, tunnel into her subconscious, and push through--but more often, examine--emotions at their most blistered or thorny. All of them: loneliness, sadness, desire, anger and frustration."
And towards the end, George says this: "Even if I had been able to set up that interview and sit down with Butler knee-to-knee once more, I wouldn't have been able--even after a week, or month, or a year--to access her stories about the effort and emotion it took to give hrrself over not only to what would become her defining body of work, but also the day-to-day determination to keep at her goal, to show up. to say yes to the next step, even when the road seemed impassable and the dream appeared to others untenable. Octavia E. Butler's speculative worlds are charged and visit and seeded with onerous obstacles to overcome, or difficult truths to reckon with. But perhaps her most ambitious and remarkable creation was the shapeshifting narrative of her own life."
The seminal Black science fiction writer Octavia Butler, a MacArthur genius grant recipient and Pasadena native, is currently having a renaissance in our teetering-on-the-apocalypse culture and our heightened awareness of race and the future. In books like The Parable of the Talents and Kindred, her interests in Black history and experience, ecology, anthropology and science all fell into place to create a unique oeuvre.
Butler had long been on George's radar--George's mother, a high school English teacher, had taken her as a teen to see Butler read at a Los Angeles area bookstore. (Butler didn't, in fact, read at these events, but rather conversed with the crowd.), and made a profound impact on George. She followed Butler's career, first as a college student and later as a journalist, periodically attending and covering her events, including the last one--at the Black to the Future Festival in Seattle in 2004, where Butler agreed to give her an interview--but sadly, the author met her death in 2006 before that interview could take place.
Twelve years later, George was commissioned to write a "posthumous interview" with Butler for a major Butler retrospective in Los Angeles. George duly appeared at the Huntington Library, a world-class research library, where the Butler archive is lodged. She could not believe what she found-- hundreds of boxes of her notes, journals, letters, receipts, imaginings, clippings, keepsakes. George ended up not only curating a public exhibition of the archive--which I was fortunate enough to attend--and giving a series of talks, but also penning this unusual book "A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky"--Butler's definition of science fiction.
In this book, George chooses to follow, not the creation of Butler's works, but her creation of herself as a writer. The ignored "tall, plain" Black girl, Estelle, who didn't pay attention in class but was ravenous for the Pasadena Public Library and read her way out of the children's section into the vast spaces of the adult shelves. The struggle against her family's discouragement--in their desire to protect her from disappointment, or perhaps themselves from an uncomfortable confrontation with their own compromises. The very real, day to day battle with financial hardship that is the story of almost every writer--but is rarely discussed, in favor of the pure art--where this is the soil out of which the pure art grows, and so often, prevents the growth, and could easily have done so in Butler's case.
Her archive is the artist herself. The bills and the dreams and the self-talk off the ledge. I have never seen a more naked portrait of the writing life than this archive-based work. People joke about Doestoevsky's grocery bills, but here are the grocery bills, the utilities, the bus pass and the way she used the bus as a time to observe and to write. How she ended up in science fiction. Commitments to self, pep talks. Figuring out how to stay afloat as she wrote, usually beginning at 4 a.m. before she would go to her various usually temporary jobs.
There are pictures that only begin to illustrate the archive, the rescued notebooks she wrote in, the library card, the bus passes, the grocery list written on the back of an envelope containing a phone bill, not just the items but the exact dollars and cents. All must be reckoned with. One of my favorite objects is her "Artistic License"--"Excuses: They drew first blood."
This is the perfect gift book for young writers, and also the not so young, anybody wrestling with the twin anacondas of self-doubt and ambition, of coming from nowhere on your way to somewhere--the Butler archive reveals just how difficult it is to wrangle the self and move forward toward one's goals.
Says George: "But a diary: that too is a form of invention, A dressing room. Here, instead of sketching backdrops and giving characters shape, form and intention, her diary is a safe zone. It is a confidant, a secret chamber within which to try out different guises, tunnel into her subconscious, and push through--but more often, examine--emotions at their most blistered or thorny. All of them: loneliness, sadness, desire, anger and frustration."
And towards the end, George says this: "Even if I had been able to set up that interview and sit down with Butler knee-to-knee once more, I wouldn't have been able--even after a week, or month, or a year--to access her stories about the effort and emotion it took to give hrrself over not only to what would become her defining body of work, but also the day-to-day determination to keep at her goal, to show up. to say yes to the next step, even when the road seemed impassable and the dream appeared to others untenable. Octavia E. Butler's speculative worlds are charged and visit and seeded with onerous obstacles to overcome, or difficult truths to reckon with. But perhaps her most ambitious and remarkable creation was the shapeshifting narrative of her own life."
August 27, 2021
This is unlike the usual writer biography I read. There's a disclaimer by the author at the beginning so I guess it's enter at your own risk. The prose is poetic, it's dreamlike, describing more the inner thoughts (from third person perspective) and behavior based on the author's research especially Butler's journals. It's almost like a musing on someone's daily life. I was confused since I am used to facts given in biographies. I felt I did not get much information.
I almost gave the book two stars but finally increased the rating since the last parts were good. It finally opened the window to Butler's thoughts when she wrote sci-fi. Some parts I just had to highlight.
I am still interested to read a more biographical account so if any of you have any recommendation, let me know.
I almost gave the book two stars but finally increased the rating since the last parts were good. It finally opened the window to Butler's thoughts when she wrote sci-fi. Some parts I just had to highlight.
I am still interested to read a more biographical account so if any of you have any recommendation, let me know.
Read
April 5, 2021I loved this - it's the "examining Butler's archives" book that I wanted for so long, and here it is. There has been a controversy about how the Huntington Library (which holds the archives) has had exclusionary practices in who could access the archives, heavily favoring senior white academics, and I've also read some of the IMO disappointing output stemming from that. But this book, now, finally!! It's not an academic work – that’s not a problem! – it’s for everyone who cares about Octavia E. Butler, it’s beautiful, it’s poetic, it’s grounded in material and reaches high. (The title is so well-chosen.)
I loved this all-round. It made me interested in even more – specifically in the years preceding her death. In this book, her early years were very thoroughly described, but not so much her later years. Butler put immense effort into her writing and struggled to make a living for many years because the US really doesn’t support artists; and that part of her life was shown in the book in great detail. And yes, she did succeed and breathtakingly so, but it really did take a toll on her physically, and we don’t read about that. Here the focus was elsewhere and that’s OK! But I’d also like something with somewhat of a disability/illness-kind of approach – not instead of this book, but in addition –, especially because she was neuroatypical too (her dyslexia is mentioned in the text, but only briefly about why she did not drive).
I also got hints of plurality from the book and I might be totally off base with that, but this was the first time I ever saw that in relation to her. Her talking about “Octavia” as separate from “Estelle” can be read as a public/private persona, but there are also her “advisors” and more, so it kind of added up. I’d love to read more about this aspect of her life.
I think it shows how great this book is that it shows you even more than what is in it (and there's such a richness in it!). It shows a path of *what other books can now be possible.*
All in all, if you only buy one nonfiction book related to science fiction this year, I suggest this one :)
____________
Source of the book: I got it from Lawrence Public Library (who ordered it on my request – thank you!) but I’m going to buy a copy for myself and another to send to my mom in Hungary.
I loved this all-round. It made me interested in even more – specifically in the years preceding her death. In this book, her early years were very thoroughly described, but not so much her later years. Butler put immense effort into her writing and struggled to make a living for many years because the US really doesn’t support artists; and that part of her life was shown in the book in great detail. And yes, she did succeed and breathtakingly so, but it really did take a toll on her physically, and we don’t read about that. Here the focus was elsewhere and that’s OK! But I’d also like something with somewhat of a disability/illness-kind of approach – not instead of this book, but in addition –, especially because she was neuroatypical too (her dyslexia is mentioned in the text, but only briefly about why she did not drive).
I also got hints of plurality from the book and I might be totally off base with that, but this was the first time I ever saw that in relation to her. Her talking about “Octavia” as separate from “Estelle” can be read as a public/private persona, but there are also her “advisors” and more, so it kind of added up. I’d love to read more about this aspect of her life.
I think it shows how great this book is that it shows you even more than what is in it (and there's such a richness in it!). It shows a path of *what other books can now be possible.*
All in all, if you only buy one nonfiction book related to science fiction this year, I suggest this one :)
____________
Source of the book: I got it from Lawrence Public Library (who ordered it on my request – thank you!) but I’m going to buy a copy for myself and another to send to my mom in Hungary.
May 3, 2021
I'm sorry to say this didn't really work for me. Not because Butler wasn't fascinating and relatable, quite the opposite, and I definitely learned some things about her here. But Butler knew what she wanted to be. This book... not so much.
From the introduction:
I was taken aback just opening the book. The large type and heavy use of graphics, giant bolded quotes... for a moment I thought it might actually be a children's book though vocabulary would argue otherwise.
But it was the voice, and the textual presentation rather than the graphic one that spoiled it for me. The whole thing is very poetic and fanciful. Nearly every sentence that didn't have quotations and a citation number beside it had me wondering if these thoughts and motivations ascribed to Butler had some basis in fact or were just the author's fantasy. The quotes that are there have no context. The numbers indicate a box number in the collection where it was sourced, but there's almost never any clue if the source was a journal, a letter, a speech, an interview... ???
Worse yet it flits about in time, talking about her not having had a sale in five years one second and calling editors trying to get payment owed her the next. Payment for what?
The book does paint a picture, but one that's not very clear in spots, and not one I felt I could trust. On the whole it feels much more like an art project than a piece of journalism or non-fiction.
From the introduction:
A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky is not a biography, nor is it a study of her literary legacy. It is an examination of Octavia E. Butler's step-by-step, quotidian process and life path... her influences, her rituals, her quirks, and obsessions, and mostly her labor...
I was taken aback just opening the book. The large type and heavy use of graphics, giant bolded quotes... for a moment I thought it might actually be a children's book though vocabulary would argue otherwise.
But it was the voice, and the textual presentation rather than the graphic one that spoiled it for me. The whole thing is very poetic and fanciful. Nearly every sentence that didn't have quotations and a citation number beside it had me wondering if these thoughts and motivations ascribed to Butler had some basis in fact or were just the author's fantasy. The quotes that are there have no context. The numbers indicate a box number in the collection where it was sourced, but there's almost never any clue if the source was a journal, a letter, a speech, an interview... ???
Worse yet it flits about in time, talking about her not having had a sale in five years one second and calling editors trying to get payment owed her the next. Payment for what?
The book does paint a picture, but one that's not very clear in spots, and not one I felt I could trust. On the whole it feels much more like an art project than a piece of journalism or non-fiction.
June 1, 2021
Octavia E. Butler is **SUCH** an inspiration to me. I feel so lucky to have *A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky* in my life, not just as the Butler fanboy I am undoubtedly am, but as a writer newly dedicating myself to my practice.
What Lynell George has created is not exactly a biography of Butler, but a love letter to her, a posthumous dialogue with her, a "whisper in the dark for anyone attempting something that feels impossible, anyone trying to make something out of nothing." All mixed into one.
It's a book that any Butler fan should read---and I believe we are all Butler fans who maybe just haven't read her yet. So in that case it is a book holding inspiration and wisdom for all of us.
George defies genre in a way that always excites me---but mostly I have tremendous gratitude for feeling this much closer to a writer I admire and truly love.
Here's one of MANY passages that I love:
What Lynell George has created is not exactly a biography of Butler, but a love letter to her, a posthumous dialogue with her, a "whisper in the dark for anyone attempting something that feels impossible, anyone trying to make something out of nothing." All mixed into one.
It's a book that any Butler fan should read---and I believe we are all Butler fans who maybe just haven't read her yet. So in that case it is a book holding inspiration and wisdom for all of us.
George defies genre in a way that always excites me---but mostly I have tremendous gratitude for feeling this much closer to a writer I admire and truly love.
Here's one of MANY passages that I love:
She is on the edge of something, a threshold to something big, something bigger than she might be ready or able to embrace....Perhaps she can even, cautiously, call it "success," call it "breaking through," "I have brought myself this far with work, education, persistence, and determination. Now I must be ready to reap all the benefits of what I have done as well as sustain myself." (152)
August 23, 2021
This is a short biography of a prominent African-American SF woman writer Octavia E. Butler, whose main works include Kindred and Parable of the Sower. I read it as a Buddy Read for August 2021 at Non Fiction Book Club group.
This book is not what I expected. I’ve previously read several biographies of SF writers, including The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein and Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction, both of which as well as this book, were nominated in different years for Hugo Award for Best Related Work. I expected that like abovementioned works it will be a story of what a person wrote, why, what external pressures or opportunities affected the works, etc. However, this book spends little time on such matters. Instead, based on diaries and extensive material that remained it shows her life and her struggle to become a writer, at a time, when nearly all professional SF writers were white men. She felt the need to write from an early age, her mother, despite running short on money, presents her daughter with the gift of a secondhand typewriter on the occasion of her tenth birthday. Despite condescending attitude of people around her, she writes and writes, getting refusals and facing financial ruin, she doesn’t go for a steady job, but continues to try. At the end she “wins”, her work is recognized and acclaimed, she is called an oracle and a prophet. She is not clairvoyant. She just examines humanity squarely and then hypothesizes. She is a novelist, a fabulist. Her stories, which bend categories, are not meant as prophecy. Not at all. They are tantalizing explorations.
When I was in my teens and full of things that could not be said to relatives and acquaintances. I recall being much alone then and lonely and full of questions, doubts, fears. . . . I could not have looked ahead to see myself now.
I have to admit, I like Butlers’ works, they are definitely written by a talented person and I wanted to know more about her books, how she grew as an author, what themes were close to her, why her prose is much more emotional than most SF works. It is a pity that her status as a Black and a woman severely limited her opportunities. However, reading about writers I don’t need to know that they lacked money to visit a dentist, unless it is linked to their prose. This book doesn’t supply what I wished for, but it can be a great encouragement to others out there, who are not yet have their talent recognized.
This book is not what I expected. I’ve previously read several biographies of SF writers, including The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein and Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction, both of which as well as this book, were nominated in different years for Hugo Award for Best Related Work. I expected that like abovementioned works it will be a story of what a person wrote, why, what external pressures or opportunities affected the works, etc. However, this book spends little time on such matters. Instead, based on diaries and extensive material that remained it shows her life and her struggle to become a writer, at a time, when nearly all professional SF writers were white men. She felt the need to write from an early age, her mother, despite running short on money, presents her daughter with the gift of a secondhand typewriter on the occasion of her tenth birthday. Despite condescending attitude of people around her, she writes and writes, getting refusals and facing financial ruin, she doesn’t go for a steady job, but continues to try. At the end she “wins”, her work is recognized and acclaimed, she is called an oracle and a prophet. She is not clairvoyant. She just examines humanity squarely and then hypothesizes. She is a novelist, a fabulist. Her stories, which bend categories, are not meant as prophecy. Not at all. They are tantalizing explorations.
When I was in my teens and full of things that could not be said to relatives and acquaintances. I recall being much alone then and lonely and full of questions, doubts, fears. . . . I could not have looked ahead to see myself now.
I have to admit, I like Butlers’ works, they are definitely written by a talented person and I wanted to know more about her books, how she grew as an author, what themes were close to her, why her prose is much more emotional than most SF works. It is a pity that her status as a Black and a woman severely limited her opportunities. However, reading about writers I don’t need to know that they lacked money to visit a dentist, unless it is linked to their prose. This book doesn’t supply what I wished for, but it can be a great encouragement to others out there, who are not yet have their talent recognized.
May 24, 2021
I absolutely adored this and need to get my hands on a physical copy, since it sounds like there's a huge visual element I missed by listening to this instead. However, the narrator was excellent. You know how some narrators not only have a great voice and perform well, but also have this extra something that shows they're really working with the words? Like, I don't know exactly how to describe it, but to me it's what takes an audiobook from a good listen to a great one. For instance, there are some repetitive elements to the book, particularly when it comes to the lists that Butler kept. The narrator is able to make these fascinating, making them feel like updates or growth. And though this is a biography, both the writing and the narrator make this feel almost like a novel.
Anyhow, even if you aren't interested in Octavia E. Butler (though, why wouldn't you be? Her writing was amazing!) there are so many other reasons to be drawn to this book. The writer's journey. The history of science fiction. The struggles of being Black and female on the path to success. Or learning to accept who you are, no matter how others see you, and finding the strength in the pieces of yourself. Plus there is a ton of love for libraries in here, so I've got to adore that.
Anyhow, even if you aren't interested in Octavia E. Butler (though, why wouldn't you be? Her writing was amazing!) there are so many other reasons to be drawn to this book. The writer's journey. The history of science fiction. The struggles of being Black and female on the path to success. Or learning to accept who you are, no matter how others see you, and finding the strength in the pieces of yourself. Plus there is a ton of love for libraries in here, so I've got to adore that.
January 29, 2021
Whether you're a sci-fi fan or a fan of Octavia Butler's, if you're a writer in whatever genre, this book will inspire you to carry on, just as Butler did. It's a gorgeous book by a fabulous writer.
May 11, 2021
This is an exceptional window into the mind and process of Octavia Butler in the years she was building her craft and career. Using notes, lists, and other ephemera from Butler's collected papers, Lynell George provides a wrenching and inspiring portrait of an artist and indominable young woman. My only complaint is that I wish there had been more! Highly recommended for anyone interested in Butler, science fiction, writing, race, and/or women's studies.
July 1, 2021
Magnificent. Simply magnificent. I am biased. Its magnificent. Just magnificent.
This book was a gift from one of my best friends.
It means everything to me.
I mourn that I'll never have the chance to have a conversation with Octavia. I feel like it would have been a good one that really sits with the soul.
This book was a gift from one of my best friends.
It means everything to me.
I mourn that I'll never have the chance to have a conversation with Octavia. I feel like it would have been a good one that really sits with the soul.
November 10, 2021
2.5
This was so cool in a lot of ways! George was given access to Butler's archives and then wrote this book based on her experience going through those things (such as notebooks, bus passes, shopping lists, etc.) This book is all about looking at those things and guessing at what they might signify about what Butler was thinking and feeling at the time. This book is not about Butler's life or work. It is very much focused on Butler's dreams and worries and processes. This was all super cool at first, but it ended up really dragging after a while and I found myself wishing that this was a much, much shorter work. That said, it was really cool to be able to get that behind the scenes look at Butler's struggles and concerns. And there are lots of photographs included.
This was so cool in a lot of ways! George was given access to Butler's archives and then wrote this book based on her experience going through those things (such as notebooks, bus passes, shopping lists, etc.) This book is all about looking at those things and guessing at what they might signify about what Butler was thinking and feeling at the time. This book is not about Butler's life or work. It is very much focused on Butler's dreams and worries and processes. This was all super cool at first, but it ended up really dragging after a while and I found myself wishing that this was a much, much shorter work. That said, it was really cool to be able to get that behind the scenes look at Butler's struggles and concerns. And there are lots of photographs included.
March 7, 2022
Refreshingly unique view of the writing life. Butler was an innovative & resilient woman. Very inspiring.
September 25, 2021
Amazing read, makes me feel like writing
November 28, 2021
This is not exactly a biography of Octavia E. Butler, but it's not exactly not a biography, either. Author Lynell George spent some time in the Butler archives, and she brings the reader along for the ride along with some speculations about Butler's notoriously private life in a loose chronological order. A lot of the book feels like "creative license" on George's part, but it works. For instance, the distinction between "Estelle" and "Octavia" as two aspects of Butler's personality might not be how Butler thought of herself, but it makes sense of the archival material.
Readers looking for a traditional biography won't find it here, but if you're familiar with most of the basic facts of Butler's life you might find more detail. If you know anything about Butler's life, you know she was extraordinarily disciplined and ambitious (and maybe she had to be given how unready the world was for a working class dyslexic Black woman of her brilliance). But it was cool, for example, to see her old bus passes and library cards interspersed with George imagining what it was like for Butler on those long bus rides through Los Angeles to visit the library.
But I suspect George's deeper point here is to look at Butler's life and work as an inspiration for others to pick up where she left off to imagine even more new suns and better ways for humanity to embrace the differences that make it so beautiful without succumbing to harmful hierarchies.
I'm glad I bought the physical book, not only because it's a work of art itself, but because there are a lot of photos and I feel like I'm holding the contents of the Butler archives in my hands. Maybe someday I'll visit those archives myself when I get around to writing something about Butler (maybe on her connections with Buddhism, who knows?).
Readers looking for a traditional biography won't find it here, but if you're familiar with most of the basic facts of Butler's life you might find more detail. If you know anything about Butler's life, you know she was extraordinarily disciplined and ambitious (and maybe she had to be given how unready the world was for a working class dyslexic Black woman of her brilliance). But it was cool, for example, to see her old bus passes and library cards interspersed with George imagining what it was like for Butler on those long bus rides through Los Angeles to visit the library.
But I suspect George's deeper point here is to look at Butler's life and work as an inspiration for others to pick up where she left off to imagine even more new suns and better ways for humanity to embrace the differences that make it so beautiful without succumbing to harmful hierarchies.
I'm glad I bought the physical book, not only because it's a work of art itself, but because there are a lot of photos and I feel like I'm holding the contents of the Butler archives in my hands. Maybe someday I'll visit those archives myself when I get around to writing something about Butler (maybe on her connections with Buddhism, who knows?).
May 20, 2021
I knew going into this that it wasn't a "proper" biography, but a look at Butler as a writer. Even so, I was still surprised by what I found. The author flits around in Butler's life, usually through a lens of some personal effect of Butler (who apparently saved everything she ever had), and we get to see her teachers' comments on herself as well as her self-doubting thoughts in the marginalia of apparently every single scrap of paper she's ever touched.
However, the author's writing style was personally off-putting (and oftentimes came off rather speculative), especially since her endnotes only reference the box that it came from, not what it was, so I had no idea if Butler actually felt that way that the author says or if it's her own thoughts.
If you're a writer, too, you might get more value out of this book, but like another reviewer said, it felt more like an art project than a piece of nonfiction.
However, the author's writing style was personally off-putting (and oftentimes came off rather speculative), especially since her endnotes only reference the box that it came from, not what it was, so I had no idea if Butler actually felt that way that the author says or if it's her own thoughts.
If you're a writer, too, you might get more value out of this book, but like another reviewer said, it felt more like an art project than a piece of nonfiction.
January 4, 2022
“What good is thinking and creating and imagining and getting off the beaten tracks, off the narrow, narrow foot paths of what ‘everybody’ is saying and doing - whoever ‘everybody’ happens to be this year. Science fiction is a handful of earth, and a handful of sky and everything around and between.”
This book is a retrospective on the life and work of Octavia Butler compiled from the Huntington Library archives in Pasadena. The author, Lynell George, expertly takes readers on a journey through Butler’s creation of herself as a writer through her renowned dedication to habit rather than the muse of inspiration. I recommend it for people who are fans of Butler and Black sci-fi writing.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - I enjoyed reading this book. I’d read it again or recommend it to a friend.
This book is a retrospective on the life and work of Octavia Butler compiled from the Huntington Library archives in Pasadena. The author, Lynell George, expertly takes readers on a journey through Butler’s creation of herself as a writer through her renowned dedication to habit rather than the muse of inspiration. I recommend it for people who are fans of Butler and Black sci-fi writing.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - I enjoyed reading this book. I’d read it again or recommend it to a friend.
June 22, 2025
i can’t choose how to best describe this incredible book—what if i just scream “i found it!” outside until someone asks what i mean??
this is an intimate, accessible tribute to a true visionary, assembled with passion and care by an brilliant journalist and writer in awe of and close proximity to butler. i was swept up and energized by her wildly creative yet disciplined work ethic. don’t be jealous but i learned so much!
and so the book is a gift that is kaleidoscopic in nature: moving expertly between passages from butler’s many notebooks and biographical archive, our lucky asses gain access to the mind, vision of commitment, and processes of a writer who truly knew her own capabilities.
this is an intimate, accessible tribute to a true visionary, assembled with passion and care by an brilliant journalist and writer in awe of and close proximity to butler. i was swept up and energized by her wildly creative yet disciplined work ethic. don’t be jealous but i learned so much!
and so the book is a gift that is kaleidoscopic in nature: moving expertly between passages from butler’s many notebooks and biographical archive, our lucky asses gain access to the mind, vision of commitment, and processes of a writer who truly knew her own capabilities.
January 9, 2023
I’ve never read a biography quite like this one.
Nitpick first though: there’s a major error on page 164 or thereabouts where a quote’s final sentence is fully repeated outside its bounds. Come on, editors.
Back to the positive: I feel like I know as much of Butler as I should. As much as she wanted, perhaps a trifle more, but grounded in her actual reality and not the version of her the SF community has erected. My throat clenched during the tight financial times, her listing of assets and expenses never failed to elicit a shudder of… empathy? Compassion? I’m not certain.
If you know who Octavia Butler is you must read this.
If you want to become a writer - to really set that goal for yourself - this is absolutely required reading.
Nitpick first though: there’s a major error on page 164 or thereabouts where a quote’s final sentence is fully repeated outside its bounds. Come on, editors.
Back to the positive: I feel like I know as much of Butler as I should. As much as she wanted, perhaps a trifle more, but grounded in her actual reality and not the version of her the SF community has erected. My throat clenched during the tight financial times, her listing of assets and expenses never failed to elicit a shudder of… empathy? Compassion? I’m not certain.
If you know who Octavia Butler is you must read this.
If you want to become a writer - to really set that goal for yourself - this is absolutely required reading.
Read
May 7, 2021I found this book through the Octavia's Parables podcast and was intrigued by the idea of Butler's ephemera telling her story. I ultimately had two minds about this book. The writing at times feels very fragmented and repetitive. I thought there would be more of Butler's ephemera included, but there are hardly any photographs here and the things that get quoted are pretty spare. The author used a lot of the same quotes over and over again. I know it was part of the effect, but it felt a little stingy.
The book didn't tell a chronological story of Butler's life, not exactly. Nor did it break her life down into discreet sections or periods. In other words, this wasn't a traditional biography or life story. To some extent it works, but it also made it really hard to know where in Butler's life you were at any given point. I often wondered, how old is she now? is this before or after she's been published? You don't get many details of Butler's life either. Snippets and traces, and a lot of speculation on Octavia's inner life, but it's not really anchored. The author essentially says at the end she is not a huge Butler fan, although her mother was. I think she had more of an interest in her as another Black female writer than for Butler's actual body of work. It made for an interesting remove from the subject.
But the book is also about how Octavia became who she was. I actually related a lot to her upbringing and childhood experiences and her creative side, even into her early 20s. And in reflecting I did come away with an idea of who Octavia Butler was and the shape of her life. There was a singular focus on her drive to be a writer, but not really on the external part of this. It felt weird considering the access George had to the Butler archive and how much of Octavia's work and journals she could have quoted, but also it worked.
I think this is probably not the right book for someone like me who is new to Octavia Butler's life and work, and is probably better suited to someone who is much more familiar with her and wants to dive into her internal life more.
The book didn't tell a chronological story of Butler's life, not exactly. Nor did it break her life down into discreet sections or periods. In other words, this wasn't a traditional biography or life story. To some extent it works, but it also made it really hard to know where in Butler's life you were at any given point. I often wondered, how old is she now? is this before or after she's been published? You don't get many details of Butler's life either. Snippets and traces, and a lot of speculation on Octavia's inner life, but it's not really anchored. The author essentially says at the end she is not a huge Butler fan, although her mother was. I think she had more of an interest in her as another Black female writer than for Butler's actual body of work. It made for an interesting remove from the subject.
But the book is also about how Octavia became who she was. I actually related a lot to her upbringing and childhood experiences and her creative side, even into her early 20s. And in reflecting I did come away with an idea of who Octavia Butler was and the shape of her life. There was a singular focus on her drive to be a writer, but not really on the external part of this. It felt weird considering the access George had to the Butler archive and how much of Octavia's work and journals she could have quoted, but also it worked.
I think this is probably not the right book for someone like me who is new to Octavia Butler's life and work, and is probably better suited to someone who is much more familiar with her and wants to dive into her internal life more.
October 9, 2021
This book would be inspiring to anyone who is or wants to be a writer. And to anyone with a soul, honestly. I loved every second of this creatively written book. I didn’t want it to end. It felt like I could actually hear her voice. 10 stars.
January 5, 2022
As Octavia Butler has long been one of my favorite authors, I really enjoyed this book. Hearing about her journals and her goal setting was just perfect for the start of the year. This was #1 of the Read Harder Challenge: A biography of an author you admire.
October 21, 2021
I loved every page of this book!
November 9, 2024
really good look at otavia's world
Read
June 1, 2025very poetic and beautiful but I think I would have preferred to just read a book on Octavia's ephemera. time and place!
December 29, 2020
A beautiful, intimate, and thoughtfully constructed biography of Octavia Butler. The author combed through boxes and boxes of Butler's journals, notebooks, and other personal belongings and, by the end of the book, made me feel as if I had the wonderful and rare opportunity of having a long and inspiring informal talk with Ms. Butler myself. As a writer, I treasured every page of this work. Read it in one sitting.
December 21, 2020
This is a soulful and beautiful book. Lynell George has done an amazing job sifting through more than 300 boxes of ephemera in the Butler Archives at the Huntington Library and coming away with the facts and insight to recreate the internal world of science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler. Angel City Press’s colorful reproductions of the bric-a-brac from the author’s life--bus passes, library cards, and to-do lists—further bring this trailblazing Southern California author to life.
I lived for a time in Altadena, close to where Butler grew up and blocks from her final resting place at Mountain View Cemetery. So it was easy to imagine Butler waiting at bus stops, armed only with her pink journal and a desire to be a writer, the San Gabriel Mountains as a backdrop. Like many of us who want to be writers, Butler had no idea how to proceed. “A Handful of Earth, a Handful of Sky” details Butler’s dogged persistence and sacrifice as she struggled for years to develop the self-confidence and skills to not only be a writer, but a female African-American science fiction writer in a field dominated by white men.
I bought this book as a gift for a friend, but couldn't resist reading it, each word taking me deeper into Butler’s struggle to create an artistic identity and make a living as a writer. Kudos to Lynell George for her own doggedness in digging deep and creating an important book that’s a refreshing departure from the usual author biographies.
I lived for a time in Altadena, close to where Butler grew up and blocks from her final resting place at Mountain View Cemetery. So it was easy to imagine Butler waiting at bus stops, armed only with her pink journal and a desire to be a writer, the San Gabriel Mountains as a backdrop. Like many of us who want to be writers, Butler had no idea how to proceed. “A Handful of Earth, a Handful of Sky” details Butler’s dogged persistence and sacrifice as she struggled for years to develop the self-confidence and skills to not only be a writer, but a female African-American science fiction writer in a field dominated by white men.
I bought this book as a gift for a friend, but couldn't resist reading it, each word taking me deeper into Butler’s struggle to create an artistic identity and make a living as a writer. Kudos to Lynell George for her own doggedness in digging deep and creating an important book that’s a refreshing departure from the usual author biographies.
August 27, 2021
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3725489.html
It is beautifully produced, and conveys very well the sense of awe and reverence that anyone who has ever done archival research knows from dealing with original first-hand materials. But I learned very little from it about what Butler thought she was doing with her work, what her influences were, what external forces pushed her in one direction or the other. It is more of an extended meditation on how Lynelle George feels about Octavia E. Butler and her personal records, which is all very well, but not as interesting as I had hoped for. In case you are reading this after the 2021 Hugo ballot has closed, you can get it here. Of the Butleriana on the ballot this year, I much prefer the graphic novel adaptation of Parable of the Sower.
It is beautifully produced, and conveys very well the sense of awe and reverence that anyone who has ever done archival research knows from dealing with original first-hand materials. But I learned very little from it about what Butler thought she was doing with her work, what her influences were, what external forces pushed her in one direction or the other. It is more of an extended meditation on how Lynelle George feels about Octavia E. Butler and her personal records, which is all very well, but not as interesting as I had hoped for. In case you are reading this after the 2021 Hugo ballot has closed, you can get it here. Of the Butleriana on the ballot this year, I much prefer the graphic novel adaptation of Parable of the Sower.
November 18, 2021
I read about a third of this before giving up. The writing was MUCH too flowery without actually saying anything, and I felt like there was a weird sort of hero worship going on, as though the author thought of Octavia Butler as somehow being more than human. Two stars because the writing wasn't BAD exactly, and it wasn't offensive, just uninformative.
I did get the impression that Butler might have been neurodivergent, which was an interesting angle to think about, and I wondered whether anyone else had suggested that possibility before.
I did get the impression that Butler might have been neurodivergent, which was an interesting angle to think about, and I wondered whether anyone else had suggested that possibility before.
July 22, 2021
"She'd tell herself repeatedly, and in many ways, that she had to let other peoples' fear and low self worth roll off time and time, and time again. This was her journey. A writer's journey."
This book was written with such a deep admiration of Octavia E. Butler, an affection I share, that I can't give it anything below 3 stars. And yet this same love caused me to feel bitter disappointment in this book, as (I feel) it does not live up to its promises.
Author Lynell George sets the record straight up front: this is not a work of criticism, and it is not a chronological account of Butler's life. Instead, it is a sort of lyrical journey through the young Estelle's challenging childhood and the experiences that informed her work, and how Estelle became the writerly persona Octavia. And yet, after childhood this journey became vague. How did Octavia sustain herself through her depressive periods and how did she cope with fame? George mentions a few details (notes of affirmation posted around the house) but doesn't chart a clear path of how other authors can attempt to overcome their own anxieties. As the journey is barely told past childhood, we don't learn how Octavia coped with her years-long depressive period in the late 90s and early 2000s. This makes me skeptical of the touted success of the methods described in this account, the success of which seemed to abandon Octavia in the peak of her power.
I likewise found this book frustrating as an account of Octavia's life. While George states the book is not a biography, the work is subitled "The World of Octavia Butler," and with this promise comes certain expectations. Who were her friends? What writers and books were most important to her? Romance is mentioned once, briefly. How did lack of a romantic partner impact her life and her work? Why did she move to Seattle? So many questions about her adulthood not only remain unanswered, but unasked. I understand the impulse to shine a flattering light on someone you admire, but this lack of context about Octavia's life past childhood made it difficult to place her work and her feelings.
Continuing on the theme of context, I was vexed by the lack of details on Octavia's finished books. Despite the book's refrain that Octavia wanted to be regarded for the work she produced rather than who she was, George's book barely mentions Octavia's work at all. I'm not saying that this book must serve as literary criticism, but as Octavia poured all of herself and her experiences into her work, the work is an inextricable part of her life story. George mentions that her own interests are nonfiction and poetry, and stories about her native Los Angeles, and to me this book felt more like the veneration of a famous local author rather than an account of that author's particular worlds and stories and how specifically they were shaped by her life and her dreams.
Despite these criticisms, I see that most people on goodreads love the book, and so if you are an Octavia fan I suggest you check it out. George's prose is luscious and lyrical, and I am of course grateful for any insight into the life of a person who is so important to me.
March 15, 2021
This is a unique book. It's not so much a biography as it is a meditation on creativity, the writing process, and the struggle to develop a writing life when everything and almost everyone is arrayed against you.
When Octavia Butler died unexpectedly at age 58, her literary estate comprised three hundred boxes given to the Huntington Library. Apparently Butler never threw away anything, and this treasure trove provided Lynell George with an unparalleled deep dive into the mind of a young, budding author. Butler's struggles with poverty, taking menial jobs to pay the rent, dealing with rejection from publishers or pleading with them to pay her what they owed – it's all here.
The interior representation of Butler's thoughts is paramount: George immerses herself into the mind of Octavia (or Estelle, her middle name and the name her family called her) to a degree unmatched by typical biographical standards, but then she had access to copious amounts of journals, written exhortations to self, written budget documents, and the detritus of a life of someone who wrote down EVERYTHING. The book is illustrated with images of receipts, travel tickets, jottings on the backs of envelopes, and other items to show how varied the archive is.
This leads me to my sole criticism: the Butler quotes throughout the book are referenced in the back to the box number in the archives, with no more information on source or date. It would have been helpful to have a bit more information (including dates, if possible) on the source of the quotes: whether a formal talk, a note to herself, a note on a particular text, etc.
George recounts that the last time she met Butler she did so as a working journalist, and asked for an interview. It was not convenient at that time, but Butler said “We will have our talk”. That talk never happened, but George admits that four years of access to the Butler archive yielded far greater insight than a single interview would have provided.
Lynell George has had her talk with Octavia Butler, and we can all benefit by learning of the difficult and extraordinary journey of a person who is too often categorized as the most famous Black woman in science fiction, but who wanted to be known simply as a fine storyteller.
When Octavia Butler died unexpectedly at age 58, her literary estate comprised three hundred boxes given to the Huntington Library. Apparently Butler never threw away anything, and this treasure trove provided Lynell George with an unparalleled deep dive into the mind of a young, budding author. Butler's struggles with poverty, taking menial jobs to pay the rent, dealing with rejection from publishers or pleading with them to pay her what they owed – it's all here.
The interior representation of Butler's thoughts is paramount: George immerses herself into the mind of Octavia (or Estelle, her middle name and the name her family called her) to a degree unmatched by typical biographical standards, but then she had access to copious amounts of journals, written exhortations to self, written budget documents, and the detritus of a life of someone who wrote down EVERYTHING. The book is illustrated with images of receipts, travel tickets, jottings on the backs of envelopes, and other items to show how varied the archive is.
This leads me to my sole criticism: the Butler quotes throughout the book are referenced in the back to the box number in the archives, with no more information on source or date. It would have been helpful to have a bit more information (including dates, if possible) on the source of the quotes: whether a formal talk, a note to herself, a note on a particular text, etc.
George recounts that the last time she met Butler she did so as a working journalist, and asked for an interview. It was not convenient at that time, but Butler said “We will have our talk”. That talk never happened, but George admits that four years of access to the Butler archive yielded far greater insight than a single interview would have provided.
Lynell George has had her talk with Octavia Butler, and we can all benefit by learning of the difficult and extraordinary journey of a person who is too often categorized as the most famous Black woman in science fiction, but who wanted to be known simply as a fine storyteller.
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