She drafted what would later become the basis for her Patternist novels. She began reading stories by John Brunner, Zenna Henderson, and Theodore Sturgeon.Īt the age of 10, Butler begged her mother to buy her a Remington typewriter, on which she 'pecked stories two fingered.' At 12, she watched the telefilm Devil Girl from Mars (1954) and concluded that she could write a better story. Hooked at first on fairy tales and horse stories, she quickly became interested in science fiction magazines, such as Amazing Stories, Galaxy Science Fiction, and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. She also wrote extensively in her 'big pink notebook'. She believed that she was 'ugly and stupid, clumsy, and socially hopeless.' As a result, she frequently spent her time reading at the Pasadena Central Library. Her awkwardness, paired with a slight dyslexia that made schoolwork a torment, made Butler an easy target for bullies. Her mother was treated poorly by her employers.įrom an early age, an almost paralyzing shyness made it difficult for Butler to socialize with other children.

She accompanied her mother to her cleaning work where, as workers, the two entered white people's houses through back doors. Growing up in the racially integrated community of Pasadena allowed Butler to experience cultural and ethnic diversity in the midst of racial segregation. Her papers are held in the research collection of the Huntington Library in Southern California. Butler died of a stroke at the age of 58. She also taught writer's workshops, and eventually relocated to Washington. Her books and short stories drew the favorable attention of the public, and awards soon followed. She soon sold her first stories and by the late 1970s had become sufficiently successful as an author to be able to write full-time.

While participating in a local writer's workshop, she was encouraged to attend the Clarion Workshop, then held in Pennsylvania, which focused on science fiction. She attended community college during the Black Power movement. She began writing science fiction as a teenager. Extremely shy as a child, Butler found an outlet at the library reading fantasy, and in writing.

In 1995, Butler became the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship.īorn in Pasadena, California, Butler was raised by her widowed mother. Octavia Estelle Butler (J– February 24, 2006) was an American science fiction author and a multiple recipient of the Hugo and Nebula awards. Butler signing a copy of Fledgling in 2005

Near of kin octavia butler