Success came slowly but surely, beginning with her mentorship under Harlan Ellison in the 1970s. Even then, her work offered biting observations on race relations, gender, sexuality, and power-themes she would sharpen even further as she evolved as a writer. These early stories were sometimes the seedlings of her later hits, often colored by her childhood experiences as a person of color in racist mid-century America. It was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with science fiction, which only grew as she won writing contests in college. She first penned original fiction at the age of 12, after watching Devil Girl from Mars-a now-cult film about a female alien commander who saves the day. She dared to challenge the white maleness of the genre, paving the way for any "youngsters" of color who wanted to write-especially women.īorn on June 22nd, 1947, Octavia Estelle Butler grew up in a segregated Pasadena, California with her widowed working mother. It seems as though, in writing these words, Butler also wrote her dreams into existence: Today, the titles of her novels are often (and justly) accompanied by adjectives like “classic,” “essential,” and “groundbreaking.”Īsk a sci-fi reader to list the greatest voices of the genre, and Butler's name will more than likely come up. Among them: "helping black youngsters," and ensuring her books were "read by millions of people." She was referring to her aspirations as an author, vowing she would not rest until she accomplished her goals. “So be it, see to it,” Octavia Butler famously wrote in one of her journals.
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