Seattlest's Field Guide to Local Authors: Octavia Butler

When's the last time you attended a reading by a genuine, MacArthur-certified genius? Tonight's your chance -- local author and Science Fiction Museum board member Octavia Butler will read from Fledgling, her first novel in 7 years, at 7:30 at Elliott Bay Book Co.

Butler's appearance is being co-presented by the Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas, an organization Seattlest confesses we'd never heard of before. Their mission: "To offer progressive programs that encourage thought and debate on the role of African-Americans in American culture." Because Butler, in case you weren't aware, is a double rarity in the science fiction field, an African-American woman. (Actually, we know the field's been expanding beyond the geeky white male stereotype in recent years, but Butler broke into the field in 1970.)

Fledgling, per the Elliott Bay website (because we confess: we haven't read it yet), is a unique twist on the vampire novel:

Fledgling is the story of a young woman who gradually discovers that she is in fact a 53-year-old vampire genetically engineered to be able to function in daylight.

This is exactly the kind of premise, in our experience, that inspires SF fans (the ones who hate the term "sci-fi") to gripe that it's not really science fiction, it's fantasy -- or maybe, just maybe, speculative fiction.

Seattlest has no dog in that fight. We're just fans of a good, meaty story, and reviews are promising in that regard. And of course, she's a genius.

Octavia E. Butler reads from Fledgling
7:30 p.m. tonight, October 20
Elliott Bay Book Company
101 South Main Street