Who is Octavia Butler?

Born in Pasadena, CA on June 22, 1947, Octavia Butler is known for her books such as; Patternmaster (1976), Mind of My Mind (1977), Wild Seed (1980), Clay’s Arc (1984), among many others. She was young during the Civil Rights Movement in the states and she used this as her background for her book Kindred that she wrote in 1979. Totally different than her earlier works, she pulled from her history as well as her mother’s history to build the story and show in a unique way the things that her ancestors went through. In one interview with The New York Times, she said, “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.” Reading this really helps understand the reasons behind what drove her to write this book

Now, as far as what makes her unique, I looked a little bit and what I found was fascinating. Octavia Butler was in fact dyslectic. However she was able to get her Associates Degree from Pasadena City College and wrote tons of books in her lifetime. Octavia Butler died at Northwest Hospital in Seattle, WA at age 58 due to a fall. She will always be remembered however for her many insightful and unique works of art, as well as achieving the MacArthur Fellowship (AKA the genious grant) and the Nebula Award.

I think that knowing what I do about her now gives me more of an appreciation for her work. She grew up in a time where she was not just accepted for who she was as a person, she had to prove it, and her works show that.