#377: An interview with E. Alex Jung, author of “The Spectacular Life of Octavia Butler”

Article Club

Happy Thursday, loyal readers. This month at Article Club, we’ve been focusing on “The Spectacular Life of Octavia Butler,” by the talented writer E. Alex Jung.

If you haven’t read the article yet, I urge you to do so. It’s excellent. Even if you are a newbie to Ms. Butler’s work, you’ll appreciate how Mr. Jung honors her and her impact. There aren’t many great profiles out there about Ms. Butler. Now, thanks to Mr. Jung, we have one.

Also: I hope you’ll join us to discuss the article on January 29, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT on Zoom. There’s still time to sign up! Article Clubbers are kind and thoughtful and welcoming. Our conversations are always in small, intimate, facilitated groups.

I’m excited to share that Sarai and I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Jung a couple weeks ago about his brilliant article. Sarai took the lead this time – which I was very happy about, given that she’s an expert of Ms. Butler’s work. We talked about a number of topics, including:

* why Mr. Jung decided to focus on Ms. Butler as a subject

* how reading her personal journals influenced Mr. Jung’s approach to the piece

* why contracts (professional and personal) were so important to Ms. Butler

* manifesting (of course)

* how Ms. Butler pushes us to imagine a better world

I hope you take a listen and let me know what you think.

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