The Carl Brandon Society’s mission is to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the production of and audience for speculative fiction.
Parable of the Sower 2024
The Carl Brandon Society is Celebrating Octavia in 2024 by honoring her work and her memory by supporting BIPOC speculative fiction creators living in a world far too close to the one she predicted in her Earthseed series. And we’re inviting you to join in!
Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, published in 1993, is a science fiction novel set in a post-apocalyptic United States which opens in the “far future” year of 2024. The world Butler built for this book and its sequel, Parable of the Talents, is heavily affected by climate change, social inequality, and fundamentalist religious violence.
The Earthseed series can be seen as a prophecy by a multiply-marginalized visionary futurist whose extrapolations were based on a clear-eyed understanding of human nature. It can also be seen as a warning, coupled with a roadmap for avoiding the dystopian outcomes presented in the text.
Join us in Celebrating Octavia by spreading Verse 54 from the in-world text Earthseed: The First Book of the Living (written by the books’ protagonist Lauren Olamina) far and wide.
Post a video of you reading the verse (found below) or the text to social media with the hashtags: #ParableOfTheSower2024, #Earthseed, #OctaviaTried. We’d also appreciate if you include a link to this page!
You can help us continue to further her legacy by supporting other visionary BIPOC writers by donating to the Carl Brandon Society. Funds go to the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship, the Parallax and Kindred Awards, and other programs. Details are available via the navigation menu above.
Verse 54 from Earthseed: The First Book of the Living
Choose Your Leaders
Choose your leaders
with wisdom and forethought.
To be led by a coward
is to be controlled
by all that the coward fears.
To be led by a fool
is to be led
by the opportunists
who control the fool.
To be led by a thief
is to offer up
your most precious treasures
to be stolen.
To be led by a liar
is to ask
to be told lies.
To be led by a tyrant
is to sell yourself
and those you love
into slavery.
Interested in hearing all of the Books of the Living verses? Watch our #CelebratingOctavia video featuring Alaya Dawn Johnson, Andrea Hairston, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, Henry Lien, John Jennings, K. Tempest Bradford, LeVar Burton, Linda Addison, Nisi Shawl, Piper J. Drake, Sheree Renée Thomas, Steven Barnes, Tananarive Due, Wayne Brady, and Yang-Yang Wang.
Awards
Carl Brandon Parallax Award
The Carl Brandon Parallax Award is given to works of speculative fiction created by a self-identified person of color. This Award includes a $1000 cash prize.
Carl Brandon Kindred Award
The Carl Brandon Kindred Award is given to any work of speculative fiction dealing with issues of race and ethnicity; nominees may be of any racial or ethnic group. This Award includes a $1000 cash prize.
Scholarships & Assistance
Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship
The Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship enables writers of color to attend one of the Clarion writing workshops, where Octavia got her start. It furthers Octavia’s legacy by providing the same experience/opportunity that Octavia had to future generations of new writers of color.
More about the Butler Scholarship fund »
Writing Excuses Scholarship
The Carl Brandon Society, in conjunction with the crew of the Writing Excuses podcast, is proud to announce the formation of a scholarship aimed at writers of color who wish to attend the second annual Out of Excuses Writing Retreat.