page_title: MacArthur Fellows Program
section_title: 1995
hierarchical_section_title: MacArthur Fellows Program / Recipients / 1995
caption_attribution_description: Octavia Estelle Butler signing a copy of Fledgling after speaking and answering questions from the audience. The event was part of a promotional tour for the book.
context_page_description: The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 individuals, working in any field, who have shown "extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction" and are citizens or residents of the United States.
  According to the foundation's website, "the fellowship is not a reward for past accomplishment, but rather an investment in a person's originality, insight, and potential". The current prize is $625,000 paid over five years in quarterly installments. This figure was increased from $500,000 in 2013 with the release of a review of the MacArthur Fellows Program. Since 1981, 942 people have been named MacArthur Fellows, ranging in age from 18 to 82. The award has been called "one of the most significant awards that is truly 'no strings attached'".
  The program does not accept applications.
context_section_description: Allison Anders, filmmaker
  Jed Z. Buchwald, historian
  Octavia E. Butler, science fiction novelist
  Sandra Cisneros, writer and poet
  Sandy Close, journalist
  Frederick C. Cuny, disaster relief specialist
  Sharon Emerson, biologist
  Richard Foreman, theater director
  Alma Guillermoprieto, journalist
  Virginia Hamilton, writer
  Donald Hopkins, physician
  Susan W. Kieffer, geologist
  Elizabeth LeCompte, theater director
  Patricia Nelson Limerick, historian
  Michael Marletta, chemist
  Pamela Matson, ecologist
  Susan McClary, musicologist
  Meredith Monk, vocalist, composer, director
  Rosalind P. Petchesky, political scientist
  Joel Rogers, political scientist
  Cindy Sherman, photographer
  Bryan Stevenson, human rights lawyer
  Nicholas Strausfeld, neurobiologist
  Richard White, historian
caption: Octavia Butler
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