The Essence Women's Writers Retreat in Nassau Bahamas was organized by my mentor Cheryll Y. Greene (that's her in the middle!) Octavia Butler (that's her second from the right in the back...next to Lucille Clifton!) told the group of writers gathered there that "There is no reason that I should be the only Black woman science fiction writer."

She shared a reading list of science fiction novels she recommended that her colleagues read, and some provocative questions.  This was but one moment in her ongoing recruitment of Black women writers in the project of Black future building through science fiction and speculative writing.   Octavia Butler made this contemporary wealth of Black speculative, futurist and visionary possible, not only with her own work, but with her consistent outreach to build a field that would outlive her.