Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Bloodchildren, ed. Nisi Shawl

I've lifted this straight from The Bookview Cafe:

Bloodchildren: Stories by the Octavia E. Butler Scholars
edited by Nisi Shawl
$8.01 (Anthology) ISBN 978-1-61138-237-2
Donate $8.01 to the Octavia E. Butler Scholarship Fund. Reap the reward right now.

Every year, the Carl Brandon Society, whose goal is to increase diversity in the field of science fiction, presents scholarships to two students of color accepted to the prestigious Clarion and Clarion West writers’ workshops. The scholarships, named in honor of the brilliant African-American writer Octavia Butler, pay workshop tuition and housing fees for the recipients. Since 2007, they have made it possible for eleven students to attend the workshops.

Give a little, get a free ebook.

If you contribute a mere $8.01 to the scholarship fund, you can download Bloodchildren: Stories by the Octavia E. Butler Scholars, an ebook anthology of science fiction and fantasy stories by these students — the voices of the new generation of writers of color in speculative fiction.
Edited by Nisi Shawl, Bloodchildren includes an introduction by Nalo Hopkinson and a memoir by Vonda N. McIntyre of her friendship with Octavia Butler, which began when they were students together at the Clarion Workshop in 1970.

The collection includes ground-breaking stories by Indrapramit Das, Shweta Narayan, Caren Gussoff, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Lisa Bolekaja, Chris Caldwell, Jeremy Sim, Erik Owomoyela, Dennis Y. Ginoza, Mary Burroughs, and Kai Ashante Wilson.

Donate now!

This special ebook is available only until June 22, 2013, Octavia’s birthday. She would have been sixty-six this year.

Octavia taught at Clarion and Clarion West, and provided enormous support there — and elsewhere — to other writers of color. Through these scholarships, she continues to do so.

Help continue Octavia’s work.

Please support the scholarship program right now with a modest $8.01 donation, and then download your gift: this original anthology celebrating an international coterie of writers who are truly the children and inheritors of Octavia Butler.

Contents of Bloodchildren: Stories by the Octavia E. Butler Scholars, edited by Nisi Shawl

Introduction by Nalo Hopkinson
Before Conception
“Speech Sounds” by Octavia E. Butler
“Octavia Estelle Butler” by Vonda N. McIntyre

2007
“My Love Will Never Die” by Christopher Caldwell
“Falling into the Earth” by Shweta Narayan

2008
“Free Bird” by Caren Gussoff
“Impulse” by Mary Burroughs

2009
“Dancing in the Shadow of the Once” by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz

2010
“Légendaire.” by Kai Ashante Wilson
“Steal the Sky” by Erik Owomoyela

2011
“/sit” by Jeremy Sim
“Re: Christmas, Bainbridge Island” by Dennis Y. Ginoza

2012
“The Runner of n-Vamana” by Indrapramit Das
“The Salt Water African” by Lisa Bolekaja

How to donate:

To donate, click on the orange Donate (MOBI) button if you have a Kindle or Kindle app. Click on the orange Donate (EPUB) button if you have a Nook, Sony, or other ereader or app. After donating, you will be given a link to download Bloodchildren: Stories by the Octavia E. Butler Scholars.
Share in Octavia’s legacy: a trove of new writers of speculative fiction.

Comments on Bloodchildren:
“This is Octavia Butler’s brood. Her bloodchildren, her kindred, scattered into the future. This is what she’s sown. And our world’s so much better for it.” — Stephen Graham Jones

“From magical revenge on a Louisiana slave plantation to inanimate objects becoming animated, the stories in Bloodchildren are a fitting tribute to the masterful artist who has helped spark so many creative dreams in all of us. This volume helps keep alive the legacy of Octavia E. Butler.” — Tananarive Due, American Book Award winner, author of My Soul to Keep and the African Immortals series

“There is a sentence in one of these fine stories, ‘Legendaire.’ by Kai Ashante Wilson, which is pure poetry: ‘As glowing coals in a fire are steeped with richer color than the fire itself, so, pale as moonlight, a shine appears in the air around Papa’s head, and where his naps grow, not black but indigo-color, round the edges of his hairline, the widow’s peak, sideburns, and kitchen: every curly strand fills with brilliance, the way hot coals do, but this light makes no heat, and it shimmers, blue as the sky at noon.’

“And it was at the moment of reading this line that something relaxed within me. I’d been impressed and entertained before that moment, but in reading Wilson’s story I realized that this collection really was inspired by one of the great modern masters of the SF form, inspired in the highest sense of the word. Octavia Estelle Butler was my friend, the most dedicated writer I’ve ever known, and a shy, sweet, generous giant of a woman. This collection celebrates her life and legacy, but more to the point, it is an opportunity for a generation of writers to announce their arrival in a burst of literary thunder.

“Rest well, Octavia: your legacy is safe.” — Steven Barnes

No comments: