Memorial for Octavia Butler: Thursday, March 2

Memorial service for Butler to be held Thursday

A public memorial service for science-fiction master Octavia Butler will be 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in the Experience Music Project at Seattle Center, where she served on the advisory board.

The prize-winning writer died Friday as a result of head injuries sustained in a fall on a walkway outside her home in Lake Forest Park.

Butler, 58, was the only science-fiction writer to be honored with a prestigious "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation. The memorial service, arranged Monday, will include personal recollections and readings of Butler's work by fellow writers and friends, including Greg Bear, Vonda N. McIntyre and Leslie Howle.

Butler moved to Seattle in 1999 from her native Southern California and led a reclusive life devoted to her work. Her most popular novel, "Kindred," has more than a quarter-million copies in print since its publication in 1979.

Reposted from http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/books/261001_tf228.html