“The Book of Martha”
| Title | “The Book of Martha” |
| Year for Search | 2003 |
| Authors | Butler, Octavia [Estelle](1947-2006) |
| Secondary Title | Bloodchild and Other Stories |
| Volume / Edition | 2nd ed |
| Pagination | 187-214 with an “Afterword” on 214 |
| Date Published | May 21, 2003/2005 |
| Publisher | Seven Stories Press |
| Place Published | New York |
| Keywords | African American author, Female author |
| Annotation | God gives a black woman, raised poor in the U.S., the task of improving the lives of humanity. She discusses several possibilities with God before choosing to have people dream their utopia. In the “Afterword” she calls this her “utopia story.” |
| Additional Publishers | Rpt. without the “Afterword” in Afro-Future Females: Black Writers Chart Science Fiction’s Newest New-Wave Trajectory. Ed. Marleen S. Barr (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2008), 135-50; and in Kindred, Fledgling, Collected Stories. Ed. Gerry Canavan & Nisi Shawl (New York: Library of America, 2021), 696-715, with a Chronology (743-755), a Note on the Text (758), and Notes (773). Originally published May 21, 2003, on SciFi.com, which is no longer available online. |
| Author Note | African American female author (1947-2006) |
| Full Text | 2003 Butler, Octavia E[stelle] (1947-2006). “The Book of Martha.” In her Bloodchild and Other Stories. 2nd ed. (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2005), 187-214 with an “Afterword” on 214. Rpt. without the “Afterword” in Afro-Future Females: Black Writers Chart Science Fiction’s Newest New-Wave Trajectory. Ed. Marleen S. Barr (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2008), 135-50; and in Kindred, Fledgling, Collected Stories. Ed. Gerry Canavan & Nisi Shawl (New York: Library of America, 2021), 696-715, with a Chronology (743-755), a Note on the Text (758), and Notes (773). Originally published May 21, 2003, on SciFi.com, which is no longer available online. PSt God gives a black woman, raised poor in the U.S., the task of improving the lives of humanity. She discusses several possibilities with God before choosing to have people dream their utopia. In the “Afterword” she calls this her “utopia story.” African American female author. |
