Bloodchild and Other Stories

Octavia E. Butler once gleefully described her eerie novella "Bloodchild", the title piece of Bloodchild and Other Stories as her "pregnant man story". "Bloodchild" explores the paradoxes of power and inequality and starkly portrays the experience of a class who, like women throughout most of history, are valued chiefly for their reproductive capacities. After it appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, it won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, SF's highest honors.

"Speech Sounds", which also won the Hugo Award, and "Crossover", Butler's first published story, both describe women continuing to endure after their lives have become unbearable. "The Evening and the Morning and the Night" wrestles with the double-edged sword of illness and talent. "Near of Kin", Butler's only non-SF story, describes a young woman coming to terms with the death of the mother who abandoned her.

Also included are two autobiographical essays, "Positive Obsession" and "Furor Scribendi", about what Butler calls "the art, the craft, and the business of writing".