Parable of the Sower Project

Our Mission

Octavia E. Butler's novel Parable of the Sower was published in 1993, but imagines Southern California in 2024, facing environmental and social collapse. Through funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, our project will use Butler's haunting story to explore humanist questions like what our responsibilities to one another and the environment are, how we create communities, and what gives meaning to our lives.

Upcoming events

January 25:

Plant Walk with Dr. Rebecca Lyons, SURF. Come learn about the plants that Lauren and her followers would have relied on for health and healing in their trek north. Register here.

February 18 and 19:

Nalo Hopkinson, prolific Sci-Fi and Fantasy author, will be on campus to give a keynote lecture on Octavia E. Butler's legacy and Black women authors talking back to the future. Watch through Zoom

Formerly based at UCR, Hopkinson is a Caribbean-Canadian author and professor in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia.   Author of over a dozen novels, plus collections of short stories and a new foray into graphic novels, Hopkinson has garnered a steady stream of awards since her first novel, Brown Girl in the Ring, was shortlisted for both the James Triptree and the Phillip K. Dick awards in 1998.  The Science Fiction of America awarded her the Damon Knight Memorial award in 2021, making her the youngest recipient of the “Grand Master” award, and adding her name to a list that includes Robert Heinlein, Ursula K. LeGuin, Samuel R. Delaney, and other luminaries of Sci-Fi and Fantasy.  Her novels combine cunning story-telling that draws from everything from “Bluebeard” to Shakespeare’s The Tempest with depictions of Caribbean cultural practices and beliefs.  Her visit is made possible by funding from DAWGS.

March 27:

Plant Walk with Dr. Rebecca Lyons, SURF. Come learn about the plants that Lauren and her followers would have relied on for health and healing in their trek north. Register here.