Thursday, February 7, 2008

Suggested Black History Month Reading...From those writing OUTSIDE the Box




I received a message recently from a Dear Friend that's into all sorts of things as a freelance writer based in New York. Black History Month usually is full of opportunities to acquaint oneself with the world of personalities, creations and contributions from people of African descent. I bet here's a realm that you might not have thought about ......the genre of Speculative Literature.


Commonly known as Science Fiction writing, Black people have been not just escaping from the plantation, ghettos and the shores of the U. S. , but some of us literally get 'out of this world'.


And Oh are we good at it too!!! Proof of that fact is that African Americans authors have been receiving awards in this field for some time.


One of my all time favorite authors was the late Octavia E. Butler. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/octavia-e-butler/


Butler was a world class science fiction writer. Butler’s work wasn’t preoccupied with robots and ray guns, but used the genre’s artistic freedom to explore race, poverty, politics, religion and human nature.


“She stands alone for what she did,” Jane Howle of the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame said. “She was such a beacon and a light in that way.”


Jane Jewell, executive director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, said Butler was one of the first black women to explore the genre and the most prominent. But Butler would have been a major writer of science fiction regardless of race or gender, she said.



“She is a world-class science fiction writer in her own right,” Jewell said. “She was one of the first and one of the best to discuss gender and race in science fiction.”



Her novels are just awesome, and she was the recipient of the highest international awards for Science Fiction writing. The way her imagination wove our history and creatively dealt with the past, to usher us into a fictional scenario in present time, was ably met by her visions of new worlds of the future, filled with new beings. Her talent certainly established her as a reigning queen of storytelling in my world. I was truly saddened that an accidental fall, cut short her life, and ended the escapes I and her many fans could find in the cosmologies she created. It's fitting that we remember her this month, as she passed at the young age of 58, Feb. 24, 2006.


Back to the Future in New York.....


I spent quite an intriguing evening hanging out with my friend a few years ago when she was producing a regular gathering of New York's finest Black science fiction authors. With the authors reading their own work, it was an evening of great short stories, poetry and a soundscape that perfectly accompanied the vibe.


Here's the message she forwarded from her colleague:
Hey all,

I'm on the steering committee of The Carl Brandon Society (
http://www.carlbrandon.org/about.html) an organization representating people of color in the speculative genres.

We've polled our members and come up with a recommended reading list of speculative fiction books by black authors for Black History Month.

Black History Month SF Reading List

The Carl Brandon Society recommends the following books for BLACK HISTORY MONTH:

So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction & Fantasy
~edited by Nalo Hopkinson and Uppinder Mehan

Parable of the Sower ~by Octavia Butler

Dhalgren ~by Samuel R. Delany

My Soul to Keep ~by Tananarive Due

The Coyote Kings of the Space Age Bachelor Pad ~by Minister Faust

Mindscape ~by Andrea Hairston

Wind Follower ~by Carole McDonnell

Futureland ~by Walter Mosley

The Shadow Speaker ~by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu

Zahrah the Windseeker ~by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu

The 2005 CARL BRANDON SOCIETY AWARD Winners:

PARALLAX AWARD given to works of speculative fiction created by a person of color:
47 ~by Walter Mosley

KINDRED AWARD given to any work of speculative fiction dealing with issues of race and ethnicity; nominees may be of any racial or ethnicgroup:
Stormwitch ~by Susan Vaught


The idea is for you to read these books this month. Forward this list around to your friends. Take this list into your local bookstores and ask them to display these books this month. Post the list on your blogs and websites, etc.

I hope you'll all strongly consider at least picking up one of these books and falling into it. It's a wonderful list, and your February will be improved!

Please feel free to pass this list around. It is official!

thanks!
c.

I don't know this lady, but I sure like the motto on her blog:
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars~


And simply because I'm grateful for the opportunity to mention Octavia Butler, here's a piece from the BLACK VOICES website.

Eight Reasons Why Octavia Butler Is Important
Posted Mar 1st 2007 12:00PM by Felicia PrideFiled under: More Than Words


Before she tragically passed away, I had the pleasure to hear Octavia Butler speak about writing, life, and politics. She had such a presence and just hearing her words of wisdom left a significant impression on me.


Her last book, Fledgling, was recently released in paperback. It absolutely captures her creative genius and I highly recommend it. In the book, Butler raises questions about what it means to be human and she explores the reasons behind bigotry. In a time when war rages globally because of idealistic, religious, racial, and social differences, she wonders, in her confident prose, using vampires and humans as paradigms, why can't we accept our differences and live harmoniously, when in the end, we need one another?


Many of us aren't aware of Butler's illustrious career, so I've compiled eight reasons why she's important. There are many more reasons. I hope you're able to discover your own to add to the list.


1. She was the first black woman to come to international prominence as a science fiction writer.


2. She was a writer in the truest sense of the word.


3. Her writing was political without being political. Using powerful, spare language and rich well-developed characters, her work tackled race, gender, religion, poverty, power, politics, and science in a way that touched the readers of all backgrounds.


4. She received numerous awards including a MacArthur "genius grant," both the Hugo and Nebula awards, the Langston Hughes Medal and a PEN Lifetime Achievement award.


5. She influenced a generation of notable authors including Nalo Hopkinson, Tananarive Due, and Steven Barnes.


6. There are nearly one million copies of her books in combined print. Her classics include Kindred, Parable of the Talents, and Parable of the Sower.


7. About herself, she once wrote, "I am a fifty-three-year-old writer who can remember being a ten-year-old writer and who expects someday to be an eighty-year-old writer. I'm also comfortably asocial--a hermit in the middle of Seattle--a pessimist if I'm not careful, a feminist, a black, a former Baptist, an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive."


8. She showed us what we can accomplish when we apply our intellect, creative talents, and perseverance.



I also hope you'll check the links below and google her name and explore her worlds on your own. See if I knew how to add sound to this thing, the theme song to the Twilight Zone would be playing in the background, and you would be expecting Rod Serling to materialize a la "Beam me up Scottie!" style, right ...about.....here.

Enjoy a truly 'Far Out!' Black History Month this year....Stretch your imagination......Take a trip exploring the stars and the spaces some of these authors will take your mind to~

loveu....itrulydo

Kentke


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/27/AR2006022701483.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11593725/from/RS.3/
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/octavia-e-butler/
http://www.carlbrandon.org/index.html

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