Cal State LA honored sci-fi and fantasy creator Tananarive Due last week during Eagle-Con, a celebration of science fiction, fantasy, speculative media, and comic books. The theme of Eagle-Con 2016 was “Pushing Boundaries: Gender, Identity, Expression.”
Due, a producer and award-winning author of The Living Blood and Ghost Summer, was presented the inaugural Eagle-Con Octavia E. Butler Memorial Award. The award was inspired by the late Octavia E. Butler, who was a pioneering science fiction writer, a MacArthur Fellowship recipient, and an alumna of Cal State LA. She died in 2006.
For three days, Eagle-Con 2016 at Cal State LA brought together science fiction, fantasy, comic books, literature, and film and television to explore issues of identity and representation from cultural and academic perspectives. The event was supported by the Art Directors Guild and the Costume Designers Guild.
A recipient of the American Book Award and NAACP Image Award, Due has authored 12 novels and a civil rights memoir. Her novella, “Ghost Summer,” published in the 2008 anthology The Ancestors, received the 2008 Kindred Award from the Carl Brandon Society. She is a leading voice in black speculative fiction. In 2013, Due co-produced a short film, Danger Word, which was nominated for Best Narrative Short at the BronzeLens and Pan African film festivals. She also co-wrote the short, which was based on her co-authored novel, Devil’s Wake. As a screenwriter, she is a member of the Writers Guild of America.
Due is a former Cosby Chair in the Humanities at Spelman College, where she taught screenwriting, creative writing and journalism. In 2010, she was inducted into the Medill School of Journalism’s Hall of Achievement at Northwestern University. In 2004, Due received the “New Voice in Literature Award” at the Yari Yari Pamberi Conference. Due has a B.S. in journalism from Northwestern University and an M.A. in English literature from the University of Leeds, England.
