- General Admission: $10
- UCSD Student: Free via SSO
- UCSD Faculty & Staff: Free via SSO
- superPOWERED: $25
About
A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler offers a blueprint for a creative life from the perspective of award-winning science-fiction writer and “MacArthur Genius” Octavia E. Butler. Written by award-winning author Lynell George, this book was drawn from her time researching the Octavia E. Butler archive at the Huntington Library as the recipient of the library’s Alan Jutzi Fellowship. More than a biography, A Handful of Earth, a Handful of Sky is a collection of ideas about how a writer looks, listens, and breathes—how to be in the world. The book draws the reader into Butler’s world, creating a sense of unmatched intimacy with the deeply private writer.
George not only engages the world that shaped Octavia E. Butler, she also explores the very specific processes through which Butler shaped herself—her unique process of self-making. It’s about creating a life with what little you have—hand-me-down books, repurposed diaries, journals, stealing time to write in the middle of the night, making a small check stretch—bit by bit by bit.
George will be in conversation with Los Angeles artist Connie Samaras, an avid admirer of Butler’s prose which served as the inspiration for her 2019 project “The Past is Another Planet”, an illustrious depiction of the Huntington Library, home to Butler’s archive.
Campus Partner:
the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination
This program was made possible by a grant from the office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at UC San Diego
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