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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