![]() ![]() While at the institution, Butler earned her first income from writing ($15), after winning a college-wide short-story contest. Upon graduating, she worked during the day and attended Pasadena City College (PCC) at night, where she graduated with an associate of arts degree with a focus in history. Butler, was a celebrated multiple award-winning African American author of science fiction novels.īorn in Pasadena, California, Butler attended John Muir High School. Click here for more information, and watch the videos below.Octavia Estelle Butler, popularly known as Octavia E. This won the Science Fiction Chronicle Award for Best Novelette in 1988.īutler's life will be celebrated all year by a series of events by Clockshop in Frogtown, starting tomorrow night with a talk at the Los Angeles Public Library: Octavia E. "The Evening and the Morning and the Night" Butler became a full-time writer after the novel was published in 1979. This time-travel-cum-historical-fiction addresses the theme of slavery. "Speech Sounds"īutler's rise to fame began when she won a Hugo Award for the shorty story "Speech Sound" in 1984. It's about the powerful, middle class and homeless coexisting in a future California. This is what makes The Parable of the Sower even more impressive than it was when first published," wrote Gloria Steinem about Butler's Nebula Award-winning novel. "If there is one thing scarier than a dystopian novel about the future, it’s one written in the past that has already begun to come true. "Bloodchild"īutler’s 1985 novella, a story set in a world where aliens dominate and humans are subjugated, won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. Here are just five of her works that you need to read: 1. “I also think that she had a nutty sense of humor and enjoyed watching aliens kill people,” he said.īutler published 15 novels and two short story collections over her lifetime. ![]() ![]() “When I wrote my first novel, I had no idea whether or not there would be an audience for speculative fiction - speculative fiction being science fiction, fantasy or horror novel - with black characters, you know, not necessarily intended for black readers.”īarnes said that science fiction’s paucity of African American writers and its nature of extrapolating where society is going had an impact on Butler’s love for the genre. “I wish I had discovered Octavia's work when I was a learning writer,” Due said. “Or blond, white women,” added Tananarive Due, also a friend of Butler’s.Īs a teacher and another African American female author, Due knows firsthand how influential Butler’s work is. “In her early novels, they would put green people or aliens on the covers of her books,” Barnes said. She was also the first African American woman in the genre to achieve international fame.Īccording to her friend and fellow writer Steven Barnes, Butler anticipated the challenges of presenting black characters in her stories. The California native fell in love with storytelling as a kid at the Pasadena Library, and later grew up to be the only sci-fi writer to receive a MacArthur Genius Fellowship. It’s been a decade since science fiction writer Octavia Butler passed away. ![]()
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