Butler, with her innovation, dedication, creativity, and dignity, has forever redefined science fiction as a place where all identities belong – as writers, readers, and main characters. Her writing has inspired countless women and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) to claim their space in the writing world and the future, with the anthology Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements emphasizing this legacy. Less than a year later, in February of 2006, she passed away outside her home from a fall, possibly caused by a stroke, at 58 years old.īutler was the first Black woman science fiction writer, but it is clear from her work and words that she never wanted to be the only. In 1995, she received the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant, becoming the first science fiction writer to receive the grant. Though her medication for hypertension gave her difficulty writing, she published her final book, Fledging, in 2005. She lived quietly, teaching workshops at Clarion West Writer’s Workshop, serving on Seattle’s Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame board, walking to Third Place Books, and taking the bus to the library. In 1999, Butler moved to Lake Forest Park in Washington State, north of Seattle, where she would live out the last years of her life. Butler never wanted to write utopias, and she drew from life to ground her fantastical stories in the lived realities of diverse people. Her writing also focuses on themes of climate change, the pharmaceutical industry, poverty, and other things she saw happening in the world. Over the course of her writing career, Butler won the Hugo and Nebula Awards and the MacArthur Fellowship “Genius Grant.”īutler’s work is regarded widely as groundbreaking for her complex explorations of the dynamics of race and gender within culture, and she is noted by some as an early contributor to the development of Afrofuturism. So, in 1976, when Butler was in her 20s, she broke into the genre with Patternmaster, her first of thirteen novels, which would later be joined by famous titles such as Kindred, Wild Seed, and Parable of the Sower, as well as many short stories, such as Bloodchild. Early on, however, she noticed the lack of Black characters in science fiction stories, especially any with important roles. She loved writing and attended every writing course and workshop she could. Butler grew up during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s, which would later influence her work. Her father’s job was shining shoes and her mother was a house cleaner, but her father died while she was young, leaving her widowed mother to support them both. When Octavia Estelle Butler first began writing at nine years old, she had no idea that by being both Black and female, she was going to be challenging the perception of the future by centering Blackness and women in it.īutler was born on June 22, 1947, in Pasadena, California. Science fiction as a literary genre has long been dominated with stories by and about white men and boys. Her papers are held in the research collection of the Huntington Library.By Tessa Denton “Rocket Ship” by Anika Gopez. Butler died of a stroke at the age of 58. She also taught writer's workshops, and eventually relocated to Washington state. Her books and short stories drew the favorable attention of the public and awards judges. She soon sold her first stories and by the late 1970s had become sufficiently successful as an author that she was able to pursue writing full-time. She attended community college during the Black Power movement, and while participating in a local writer's workshop was encouraged to attend the Clarion Workshop, which focused on science fiction. She began writing science fiction as a teenager. Extremely shy as a child, Octavia found an outlet at the library reading fantasy, and in writing. In 1995, she became the first science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant.Īfter her father died, Butler was raised by her widowed mother. Octavia Estelle Butler was an American science fiction writer, one of the best-known among the few African-American women in the field.
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