Editing Octavia E. Butler (section)

== Later years and death ==
During her last years, Butler struggled with [[writer's block]] and [[Depression (mood)|depression]], partly caused by the side effects of medication for [[Hypertension|high blood pressure]].<ref name="Logan" /><ref name="BLC">{{cite book |chapter=Butler, Octavia 1947–2006 |title=Black Literature Criticism: Classic and Emerging Authors since 1950 |editor-first= Jelena O. | editor-last = Krstovic |edition=2nd |volume=1 |location= Detroit |publisher=Gale |year=2008 |pages= 244–258 |isbn= 9-781-41443-1703 |via= Google Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dZchmwEACAAJ}}</ref> She continued writing and taught at Clarion's Science Fiction Writers' Workshop regularly. In 2005, she was inducted into [[Chicago State University]]'s International Black Writers Hall of Fame.<ref name="EAAW" />

Butler died outside of her home in [[Lake Forest Park, Washington]], on February 24, 2006, aged 58.<ref name="obit" /> Contemporary news accounts were inconsistent as to the cause of her death, with some reporting that she had a fatal [[stroke]] and others indicating that she died of head injuries after falling and striking her head on her cobbled walkway.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/entertainment-news/2006/02/28/sci-fi-author-octavia-butler-dies-58|title=Sci-fi author Octavia Butler dies at 58| date=February 28, 2006 |work=The Advocate}}</ref> Another interpretation, backed by ''[[Locus (magazine)|Locus]]'' magazine, is that a stroke caused the fall and the subsequent head injuries.<ref name="locus-obit">{{cite journal |title= Obituaries |journal=[[Locus (magazine)|Locus]] |issn= 0047-4959 |issue= 4.543 |volume=56}}</ref>

Butler maintained a longstanding relationship with the [[Huntington Library]] and bequeathed her papers, including manuscripts, correspondence, school papers, notebooks, and photographs, to the library in her will.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2009/10/octavia-butler.html |title=Octavia Butler's papers going to the Huntington Library |date=October 2, 2009 |website=LA Times Blogs – Jacket Copy |language=en-US |access-date=October 23, 2017}}</ref> The collection, comprising 9,062 pieces in 386 boxes, 1 volume, 2 binders and 18 broadsides, was made available to scholars and researchers in 2010.<ref name="papers">{{cite web|title=Octavia E. Butler Papers|url=http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8hm5br8/|access-date=January 11, 2017|website=oac.cdlib.org|publisher=Online Archives of California}}</ref> Butler donated one of her typewriters to Smithsonian Institution's Anacostia Community Museum for a 2003-2004 exhibition celebrating Black American literature.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Magazine |first1=Smithsonian |last2=Kearse |first2=Stephen |title=In Her Inventive and Prescient Stories, Octavia Butler Wrote Herself Into the Science Fiction Canon |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/inventive-prescient-stories-octavia-butler-wrote-herself-into-science-fiction-canon-180985642/ |access-date=2025-01-16 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref>