A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler offers a blueprint for a creative life from the perspective of award-winning science-fiction writer and "MacArthur Genius" Octavia E. Butler. It is a collection of ideas about how to look, listen, breathe―how to be in the world. This book is about the creative process, but not on the page; its canvas is much larger. Author Lynell George not only engages the world that shaped Octavia E. Butler, she also explores the very specific processes through which Butler shaped herself―her unique process of self-making. It's about creating a life with what little you have―hand-me-down books, repurposed diaries, journals, stealing time to write in the middle of the night, making a small check stretch―bit by bit by bit. Highly visual and packed with photographs of Butler's ephemera, A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky draws the reader into Butler's world, creating a sense of unmatched intimacy with the deeply private writer. There's a great resurgence of interest in Butler's work. Readers have been turning to her writing to make sense of contemporary chaos, to find a plot point that might bring clarity or calm. Her books have become the centerpiece of book-group discussions, while universities and entire cities have chosen her titles to anchor "Big Read," "Freshman Read," and "One Book/One City" programs. The interest has gone beyond the printed page; Ava DuVernay is adapting Butler's novel Dawn for television. A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky brings Octavia's prescient wisdom and careful thinking out of the novel and into the world. A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky will be beloved by both scholars and fans of Butler, as well as aspiring writers and creatives who are looking for a model or a spark of inspiration. It offers a visual album of a creative life―a map that others can follow. Butler once wrote that science fiction was simply "a handful of earth, a handful of sky, and everything in between." This book offers a slice of the in between. "Uncanny and compelling ... George has done aspiring writers an immense service by making the road map and method contained in Butter's papers accessible through this beautiful book."-- Harvard Review "George outlines a life map, a model, a vision of possibilities that is sure to inspire budding writers to, as Butler did, imagine a world that is different and make a place for themselves in it. Also a must-read for Butler fans."-- Library Journal "This is a literary biography, a work of creation and imagination in its own right; George is not afraid to put the reader in its subject's mind, to intuit what her life must have felt like. It is as much a novel as it is scholarship." -- Los Angeles Review of Books "George's book offers a portrait of the writer that is neither biography nor a collection of annotated ephemera....Beyond honoring Butler's creative steps, her attention to form. George has written a love letter to indexing and process." -- Alta Journal "[An] intimate biography, A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky [is] a look at Butler though the lens of a myriad of documents that speak to her attempts in creating the writer, the artist, admist the complexities of real life" -- Jezebel "Reproduced in full color, [Butler's] scraps look like the relics of a saint . . . . George's book exists to motivate readers to maximize their potential . . . . [I]t's the kind of book Butler would have cherished, a template for regaining confidence and focus when things look particularly bleak." --Harper's Explore this visual biography of Octavia Butler's creative process where Lynell George reveals how the acclaimed writer fashioned her unique life and art from limited resources--an intimate glimpse into a private genius's world. Lynell George is an award-winning journalist and essayist. She is the author of three books of nonfiction including N o Crystal Stair: African Americans in the City of Angels ,  and the Los Angeles Times Bestseller, After/Image: Los Angeles Outside the Frame --a collection of essays and photography, exploring the city where she grew up. As a former staff writer for both the Los Angeles Times and L.A. Weekly , she focused on social issues, human behavior, as well as visual arts, music, and literature. Her writing has appeared in various collections, including  Speculative Los Angeles, (Akashic Books), Writing Los Angeles  (Library of America), and  Another City: Writing from Los Angeles  (City Lights). In 2013, George was named a USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Fellow, and in 2017 received the Huntington Library's Alan Jutzi Fellowship for her studies of California writer Octavia E. Butler. Her liner notes for "Otis Redding Live At The Whisky A Go Go: The Complete Recordings" won a 2017 GRAMMY award. Her latest book, A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler, (Angel City Press) is a finalist for a 2021 Hugo Award in the Relat