""There's no single answer that will solve all our future problems. There's no magic bullet. Instead there are thousands of answers-at least. You can be one of them if you choose to be." Legendary science fiction writer and Afrofuturist pioneer Octavia Butler wrote the essay "A Few Rules for Predicting the Future" in the year 2000 for publication in Essence magazine. More than two decades later, her honest and wise advice is just as timely and prescient, offering guideposts for anyone who wants to shape our future into something good"--

Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006) was a renowned African American author of several award-winning novels, including Parable of the Sower, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 1993, and Parable of the Talents, winner of the Nebula Award for the best science fiction novel in 1995. She received a MacArthur Genius Grant and PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work and was acclaimed for her lean prose, strong protagonists, and social observations in stories that range from the distant past to the far future.