Octavia Butler's work on adaptation is as necessary now as it has ever been. This Octavian dictionary looks to Butler's childhood and young adult creativity as a source for the adaptive interspecies worlds and ways of being she created in her published fiction. May this book help us to look to the young outcast geniuses of today as leaders towards the change we must become. * Alexis Pauline Gumbs, PhD, author of Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals * This brilliant, playful, and beautifully executed study is the first to focus upon Octavia Butler's juvenilia, giving us a glimpse into the becoming of one of the most important science fiction writers of the 20th century. Moreover, Yang uses quotidian syllabary to move us through Butler's youthful archive, noting her practice of 'reading for life.' While this book does so much for Black study's work with Butler, it also makes a necessary intervention in the work of animal studies, returning us to the necessity of an interspecies perspective on living that has been active in Black Thought all along. In a word, this work is not to be missed and I am grateful for this bit of genius in this world at this moment. * Sharon P. Holland, Townsend Ludington Distinguished Professor in American Studies * What if everything you ever wrote or scribbled, since you were a child, ended up in an archive-and someone decided to explore? In this playful and moving book, Chi-ming Yang dives into the accidental archive of famed science fiction author Octavia E. Butler to consider how her childhood dreams played out in her mature writing. From animals to outer space, we play with a young Octavia. We need those childhood passions, we learn, to nurture everything we do thereafter. * Anna Tsing, co-author of Field Guide to the Patchy Anthropocene: The New Nature * A brilliant intertextual combination of deep archival research, critical theory, art criticism, and occasional, judicious, and quite moving dashes of autobiography. The book presents a wealth of Butler's juvenilia for the very first time and in a completely innovative way. What sets Yang's contribution apart is the compelling and ingenious manner in which she presents this archival material. Sculpted in the form of a set of encyclopedia entries, this is an immersive, beautifully-paced reading experience: an inimitable combination of poetic recitation, meta-archival cataloguing, and a skillfully sequestered narrative element that drives the reading experience forward. * Jordy Rosenberg, author of Confessions of the Fox: A Novel * A unique and personal engagement with Butler's life and legacy. * Adam Roberts, Times Literary Supplement * A lively book overflowing with insights, [ Octavia E. Butler: H is for Horse] is a must-read for Octavia Butler fans and a fine introduction for readers new to Butler and her work. * Robert Savino Oventile, Local News Pasadena *
