City of Lake Forest Park to recognize former resident and award-winning science fiction author Octavia E. Butler

Octavia Butler being honored in Lake Forest Park

Lake Forest Park, Wash. – 

The City of Lake Forest Park will recognize the many contributions of science fiction author Octavia E. Butler with an honorary street dedication on July 29, 2023.

Ms. Butler was a visionary and influential African American author whose groundbreaking work greatly contributed to the science fiction and speculative fiction genres. 

She was the first science fiction author to receive a MacArthur “Genius” Grant and was later awarded the PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work.

Octavia Butler's novels, including Kindred, Parable of the Sower, and Lilith's Brood, have been recognized with numerous awards, including the Hugo, Locus, and Nebula Awards for Best Novelette in 1985 and the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1999. Ms. Butler spent the last years of her life living on 37th Avenue in Lake Forest Park, where she wrote her final novel, Fledgling, in 2005.

“The City of Lake Forest Park is fortunate to benefit from the wide array of notable and talented people, like Ms. Butler, who found a home in our city, and added to its rich history,” said Mayor Jeff Johnson.

Since her death in 2006, Ms. Butler’s reputation has soared as readers recognize the relevance of her exploration of important themes such as race, gender, power dynamics, and social justice, challenging them to critically examine the world we live in. Her work is now taught in over 200 colleges and universities nationwide and at least two of her novels are currently being adapted for television.

The dedication will be held on Saturday July 29, 2023, at 10:00am at the Intersection of NE 165th Street and 37th Avenue NE.

See previous article: My Neighbor Octavia