Frederick Guy Butler (21 January 1918 – 26 April 2001) was a South African poet, academic and writer.

In 1951, he returned to Rhodes University in Makhanda then known as Grahamstown, to take up a post as senior lecturer, and a year later was made professor and head of English.

Butler promoted the culture of English-speaking South Africans, which led to the charge of separatism from some critics, although he argued for integration rather than exclusivity.

He was influential in achieving the recognition of South African English Literature as an accepted discipline.

Pilgrimage to Dias Cross (1987) is a long meditation on racial conflict, incorporating representative voices from various groups, and ending with a prayer for unity.