Since the Los Angeles fires began last week, “Parable of the Sower” and other Octavia Butler works written decades ago have been cited for anticipating a world wracked by climate change, racism and economic disparity.

Anticipation has been growing all year for one of the fall’s likeliest bestsellers, Colleen Hoover’s “It Starts With Us.”.

In this undated photo provided by the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, environmental activist Catherine Coleman Flowers poses for a photo in Montgomery, Ala. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced the fellowships Tuesday Oct. 6, 2020. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced the fellowships Tuesday. Writers, sociologists, scientists, a documentary filmmaker, a legal scholar and an environmental health advocate are among the luminaries named this year. The Chicago-based foundation has awarded the “genius grants” every year since 1981 to help further the pursuits of people with outstanding talent.