Profiles in Black History is a project of our Justice Works Anti-Racism Team. A new profile will be spotlighted every day during Black History Month.
Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006)
Octavia Butler: image by Nikolas Coukouma is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5
“Octavia E. Butler was a renowned African American author who received a MacArthur “Genius” Grant and PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work. Born in Pasadena in 1947, she was raised by her mother and her grandmother. She was the author of several award-winning novels including Parable of the Sower (1993), which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and Parable of the Talents (1995) winner of the Nebula Award for the best science fiction novel published that year. She was acclaimed for her lean prose, strong protagonists, and social observations in stories that range from the distant past to the far future. Though the MacArthur Grant made life easier in later years, she struggled for decades when her dystopian novels exploring themes of Black injustice, global warming, women’s rights and political disparity were, to say the least, not in commercial demand. During these years of obscurity Butler, always an early riser, woke at 2 a.m. every day to write, and then went to work as a telemarketer, potato chip inspector, and dishwasher, among other things … Her work is now taught in over 200 colleges and universities nationwide.”
Learn More:
Author’s Website: https://www.octaviabutler.com/theauthor
Article: “Why Octavia Butler’s novels are so relevant today”: https://www.octaviabutler.com/theauthor; https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200317-why-octavia-e-butlers-novels-are-so-relevant-today
Book recommendation: “Parable of the Sower”
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52397.Parable_of_the_Sower
Rebecca Riley is a writer and filmmaker who lives in North County San Diego.