Author Steven Barnes is reporting on his blog (picked up by Boing Boing, where Cory Doctorow calls the news confirmed) that Octavia Butler has died in Seattle following a fall at her home yesterday. Her Wikipedia entry has been updated to attribute her death at age 58 to a stroke. As a science fiction writer Butler won the Hugo and Nebula awards, and also was the recipient in 1995 of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (or "genius" grant.) She was born in Pasadena and graduated from Pasadena City College, which lists a bibliography of works by her and about her.

Photo: Pasadena City College