Octavia Butler remains the grande dame of the group of African-American women writing in the field of science and speculative fiction (others include Tananarive Due and Nalo Hopkinson). As of 2007, she remains the first (and only) writer to have received both the MacArthur Foundation's "genius grant" (1995) and the Hugo and Nebula Awards.
Her work is classically American, addressing themes of alienation and transcendence; violence and spirituality; slavery and freedom; and separation and community... among others. Not only is it classic, but it is also timeless.
Her bibliograpy of novels includes the following (in order of publication, with series noted parenthetically):
Patternmaster (1976) {Patternist Series; collected in Seed to Harvest in 2006, not including Survivor}
Mind of my Mind (1977) {Patternist Series}
Survivor (1978) {Patternist Series}
Kindred (1979)
Wild Seed (1980) {Patternist Series}
Clay's Ark (1984) {Patternist Series}
Dawn (1987) {Xenogenesis Series--first collected as Xenogensis in 1989; also collected as Lilith's Brood in 2000}
Adulthood Rites (1988) {Xenogenesis Series}
Imago (1989) {Xenogenesis Series}
Parable of the Sower (1993)
Parable of the Talents (1998)
Fledgling (2005)
Her short stories include one compilation, Bloodchild and Other Stories (1995), two tales available online ("Amnesty" and "The Book of Martha"), and the recently published "Speech Sounds" (in Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse).
