Celebrate Black History 2021 - Octavia Butler

by Dick Mac

Octavia Estelle Butler was a science fiction writer born in Pasadena, California, on June 22, 1947, and died February 24, 2006, in Lake Forest Park, Washington, of head injuries ostensibly caused by a fall at the onset of a stroke.

Butler began publishing her stories in 1971. Her early efforts at writing were encouraged by famed sci-fi writer Harlan Ellison, who paid her for a piece published in his anthology. This was one of the earliest professional experiences of what would become a storied career.

In 1995, she was the first sci-fi writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship genius award. She enjoyed numerous best-sellers and won both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award multiple times. In 2010, she was inducted into the Science Fiction Writers Hall of Fame.

Butler theorized that hierarchical thinking leads to intolerance and violence, and could ultimately be the demise of our species. Almost all of her themes focus on survivors as heroes and the exploitation of the disenfranchised.

Butler pushed the envelope of modern thinking in ways that transformed our society, and for that she is an American hero.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octavia_E._Butler

Watch this profile of Butler at YouTube: https://youtu.be/5-cqiVQCb8Y

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