Frances M. Beal, "Black Women and the Science Fiction Genre: Interview with Octavia M. Butler," in Black Scholar, Vol. 17, March-April, 1986, p. 14.

An interview with Butler in which she discusses her childhood and other influences.

Teri Ann Doerksen, "Octavia E. Butler: Parables of Race and Difference," in Into Darkness Peering: Race and Color in the Fantastic, edited by Elisabeth Anne Leonard, Greenwood Press, 1997, pp. 21-34.

Views Butler's novels as works that "have the potential to lead the once typical white or male reader into some (perhaps uncomfortable) realizations about his or her own society."

Sandra Y. Govan, "Homage to Tradition: Octavia Butler Renovates the Historical Novel," in MELUS, Vol. 13, Nos. 1-2, 1986, pp. 79-96.

Provides a stylistic examination of Butler's novel, praising innovative aspects of her work.

Patricia Maida, "Kindred and DessaRose: Two Novels That Reinvent Slavery," in CEA Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1991, pp. 43-...