2004 Martin Luther King, Jr. Convocation
Octavia E. Butler

Loyola College in Maryland welcomes Octavia E. Butler, an award-winning science fiction writer who has explored issues of racial inequity, politics, sexuality and sexual identity in her work, as she delivers the 11th Martin Luther King, Jr., Convocation address on Wednesday, January 21, 2004. The convocation will begin at 7 p.m. in the College's McGuire Hall on the College's North Charles Street campus, followed by a reception and book signing.

Butler's first novel, Patternmaster, was published in 1976, followed by Mind of My Mind in 1977. Both were part of her five-volume Patternist series, which later included Survivor (1978), Wild Seed (1980), which won the James Tiptree Award, and Clay's Ark (1984).

Butler's ground-breaking novel Kindred (1979) tells the tale of a 20th-century African American woman drawn back through time to antebellum Eastern Shore, Maryland where she must save the life of a slave-holding forefather. The novel has sold over 250,000 copies and will be released in its 25th-anniversary edition in February 2004.

The recipient of a 1984 Hugo Award for her short story Speech Sounds, Butler also received a Hugo, a Nebula Award and a Locus Award for her work Bloodchild, named the best novelette in 1985 from Science Fiction Chronicle. Her most recent novel, Parable of the Talents, the second of her planned six-part Earthseed series, won a Nebula Award in 1998.

In 1995, Butler was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Foundation fellowship—commonly referred to as the "genius grant." It was the first MacArthur fellowship awarded to a science fiction writer. Her books will be on sale throughout the night for the book signing.