Octavia Butler (1947-2006) was an author who forever changed the science fiction genre.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today we are talking about a woman who forever changed the science fiction genre, the one and only: Octavia Butler.
Octavia Estelle Butler was born on June 22, 1947. Her father, Laurice James Butler, a shoe shiner, died when she was very young, so Octavia was raised by her mother, Octavia Margaret Guy. They lived in Pasadena, California.
Octavia’s mother worked as a maid to support the family.
As a young child in the 1950s, stories were Octavia’s escape from reality. America was in a period of transition amidst the post-World War II boom, the rise of the Cold War and the start of the Civil Rights movement.
Octavia was a very shy, tall child who kept mostly to herself. She loved books and started writing her own stories at the age of 10. Her love of reading was unhindered by the fact that Octavia was dyslexic. Though money was often tight, to support her daughter’s interests, Octavia’s mother picked up books wherever she could and helped Octavia get a library card.
When Octavia was 12 years old, she discovered a genre that would change her life: science fiction.
She later said, “It appealed to me more, even, than fantasy because it required more thought, more research into things that fascinated me”.
Octavia dreamed up alternate universes, drawing from sources including astronomy and botany.
After graduating from high school, Octavia enrolled at Pasadena City College, where she earned an Associates of Arts degree in 1968. She later also studied at California State University, Los Angeles, and she continued her education via writing programs. She took a course through the Screen Writers’ Guild Open Door Program with award winning sci-fi writer Harlan Ellison. And while attending the Clarion Science Fiction Writer’s Workshop, she sold her first story.
Octavia always focused on writing, but she also took on other jobs to support herself. She was a telemarketer, a dishwasher and even a chip inspector in a factory. She would often wake up at 2 in the morning to write.
After five years of rejection, Octavia sold her first novel. The book, entitled Patternmaster, is set in a distant future when humans are equipped with telepathic powers.
It was published the next year and critics applauded the well-built plot and well-developed characters.
Soon after, Octavia published two more novels, Mind of My Mind and Survivor.
Using the money earned as advances from her previous novels, Octavia took a trip to Maryland to research her next award-winning book, Kindred. She wrote the first and last chapters of the book during a three hour wait at a bus station.
Kindred is about a young Black woman who travels back in time to the 19th Century U.S. South to save the life of her white ancestor.
In a New York Times interview, Butler said that she drew inspiration from her mother's job.
She said, "I didn't like seeing her go through back doors. If my mother hadn't put up with all those humiliations, I wouldn't have eaten very well or lived very comfortably. So I wanted to write a novel that would make others feel the history: the pain and fear that Black people have had to live through in order to endure."
For some, science fiction is a way to escape problems in the real world. For Octavia, science fiction was a way to shine a light on those problems. She used other worlds to examine real human experiences and address issues facing humanity. Her works touch on the environment, race theory, black feminism, queer theory, and disability studies. She was a pioneer in the development of afrofuturism.
Octavia Butler had a powerful certainty and drive in her writing career, evidenced in the archives of her work at the Huntington Library. She wrote, “I shall be a bestselling writer!” and “I will find the way to do this! So be it! See to it!”
She was right.
Octavia won many awards, including the 1984 Hugo Award for Best Short Story & Hugo Award for Best Novelette.
In 1995, Octavia received a Genius grant from the MacArthur Foundation, becoming the first science-fiction writer to do so. With this grant, she was able to buy a house for her mother and herself.
In 2005, she was awarded a place in Chicago State University’s International Black Writers Hall of Fame. By then, her books had been translated into 10 languages, and had sold more than 1 million copies.
A year later, in 2006, Octavia Butler died after taking a fall in her Washington home. She was 58 years old.
Since her death, Octavia Butler’s writing has become even more popular. Her work is featured on college campuses and there are plans for some of her stories to be adapted for film and television.
One of her books, “Parable of the Sower'' feels particularly prescient.. Set in the 2020s, “Parable of the Sower” is based in a world that has largely collapsed due to climate change, class inequality, and corporate greed.
In her work, Octavia exposed flaws of this world by creating others. Her uncanny ability to see, understand, and reveal deep seated problems continues to inspire and provoke readers today.
All month, we’re talking about Storytellers. For more on why we’re doing what we’re doing, check out our newsletter, Womannica Weekly. Follow us on facebook and instagram @encyclopediawomannica.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
Talk to you tomorrow!