In celebration of the legacy of Octavia E. Butler, Pacific Northwest writers Vonda N. McIntyre, Nisi Shawl, Dennis Y. Ginoza, Erik Owomoyela, Caren Gussoff, and Rashida Smith will read work inspired by their relationships with Octavia Butler, or stories included in Bloodchildren: Stories by the Octavia E. Butler Scholars.

These readings will be at Seattle’s world famous sci-fi/fantasy coffeehouse, the Wayward Coffeehouse (6417 Roosevelt Way NE, #104, Seattle WA 98105) on Friday, April 12, at 7PM.

Octavia E. Butler was one of the world’s most respected speculative fiction writers. Butler, an African-American woman, was recognized during her lifetime with numerous awards, such as the Hugo and Nebula, and was the first science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant. Butler made the Seattle area her home in 1999, and lived in Lake Forest Park until her death in 2006.

Bloodchildren is an e-book anthology of science fiction and fantasy stories by those who have received the Octavia E. Butler Scholarship.

The Octavia E. Butler Scholarship Fund is named for Butler and managed by the Carl Brandon Society. The Carl Brandon Society is “…dedicated to addressing the representation of people of color in the fantastical genres such as science fiction, fantasy and horror…” and the scholarship pays tuition for 2 writers of color attending the Clarion and Clarion West writers’ workshops each year. Both Clarion and Clarion West are recognized as the premiere workshops for aspiring professional writers of speculative fiction.

All proceeds from the sales of Bloodchildren benefit the scholarship fund. The anthology is only available until June 22, 2013, which would have been Octavia’s 66th birthday. The anthology is available for purchase through the Book View Café, an all- author run publishing cooperative: http://bookviewcafe.com/bookstore/book/bloodchildren/

If you contribute just $8.01 to the scholarship fund, you can download Bloodchildren: Stories by the Octavia E. Butler Scholars.

More information about the Octavia E. Butler scholarship and the Carl Brandon Society may be found here: http://carlbrandon.org/

To learn about Clarion and Clarion West, please visit http://literature.ucsd.edu/affiliated-programs/clarion/index.html and http://www.clarionwest.org, respectively.