View source for Octavia E. Butler

{{short description|American science fiction writer (1947–2006)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2017}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Octavia E. Butler
| image            = Butler signing.jpg
| birth_name       = Octavia Estelle Butler
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1947|6|22}}
| birth_place      = [[Pasadena, California]], U.S.
| death_date       = {{death date and age|2006|2|24|1947|6|22}}
| death_place      = [[Lake Forest Park, Washington]], U.S.
| occupation       = Writer
| education        = [[Pasadena City College]] ([[Associate of Arts|AA]])<br />[[California State University, Los Angeles]]
| period           = 1970–2006<ref name=isfdb/>
| genre            = [[Science fiction]]
| awards           = [[MacArthur Fellow]]<br />[[Hugo Award]]<br />[[Nebula Award]]<br />''[[Octavia Butler#Awards and honors|See list]]''
| signature        = Octavia E. Butler signature.svg
| website          = {{URL|octaviabutler.com|Official website}}
| caption          = Butler signing a copy of ''Fledgling'' in 2005
}}
'''Octavia Estelle Butler''' (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006) was an American [[science fiction]] and [[speculative fiction]] writer who won several awards for her works, including [[Hugo Award|Hugo]], [[Locus Award|Locus]], and [[Nebula Award|Nebula]] awards. In 1995, Butler became the first science-fiction writer to receive a [[MacArthur Fellowship]].<ref name= "kindafter1">Crossley, Robert. "Critical Essay." In&nbsp;''Kindred'', by Octavia Butler. Boston: Beacon, 2004. {{ISBN|978-0-8070-8369-7}}</ref><ref name= macfound>{{cite web|title= Octavia Butler|url= https://www.macfound.org/fellows/505/| website= MacArthur Foundation Fellows|access-date= October 9, 2015}}</ref>

Born in [[Pasadena, California]], Butler was raised by her widowed mother. She was extremely shy as a child, but Butler found an outlet at the library reading fantasy, and in writing. She began writing science fiction as a teenager. Butler attended community college during the [[Black power movement|Black Power movement]] in the 1960s. While participating in a local [[Writers workshop (activity)|writer's workshop]], she was encouraged to attend the [[Clarion Workshop]] which focused on science fiction.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Anderson |first=Hephzibah |title=Why Octavia E Butler's novels are so relevant today |url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200317-why-octavia-e-butlers-novels-are-so-relevant-today |access-date=2022-11-25 |website=www.bbc.com |date=March 18, 2020 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=George |first=Lynell |date=2022-11-17 |title=The Visions of Octavia Butler |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/17/arts/octavia-butler-vision-kindred.html |access-date=2022-11-25 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> She sold her first stories soon after, and by the late 1970s had become sufficiently successful as an author to be able to write full-time.

Butler's books and short stories drew the favorable attention of critics and the public, and awards soon followed. She also taught writer's workshops, and spoke about her experiences as an [[African American]], using such themes in science fiction. She eventually relocated to [[Washington (state)|Washington]]. Butler died of a stroke at the age of 58. Her papers are held in the research collection of the [[Huntington Library]] in [[San Marino, California]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Mining the Archive of Octavia E. Butler|author=Ayana Jamieson|date=June 22, 2017|access-date=November 9, 2020|url=https://www.huntington.org/verso/2018/08/mining-archive-octavia-e-butler}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Octavia Estelle Butler was born in [[Pasadena, California]], the only child of Octavia Margaret Guy, a housemaid, and Laurice James Butler, a [[shoeshiner]]. Butler's father died when she was seven years old.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Biography: Octavia Estelle Butler |url=https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/octavia-estelle-butler |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=National Women's History Museum |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Edmund |first=Aiyana |date=2018-02-28 |title=12 Fast Facts About Octavia E. Butler {{!}} LiteraryLadiesGuide |url=https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/literary-musings/fast-facts-about-octavia-butler/ |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=Literary Ladies Guide |language=en-US}}</ref> She was raised by her mother and maternal grandmother in what she would later recall as a strict [[Baptists|Baptist]] environment.<ref name= Gant>{{cite journal|editor-last1=Gant-Britton|editor-first1=Lisbeth|editor-last2=Smith|editor-first2=Valerie|date=2001| title=Butler, Octavia (1947– )|journal=African American Writers|edition= 2nd |volume= 1|location= New York|publisher= Charles Scribner's Sons|pages =95–110}}</ref>

Growing up in Pasadena, Butler experienced limited cultural and ethnic diversity in the midst of de facto [[racial segregation]] in the surrounding area. She accompanied her mother to her cleaning work where, as workers, the two entered white people's houses through back doors. Her mother was treated poorly by her employers.<ref name="EAAW">{{Cite book |last=Hatch |first=Shari Dorantes |title=Encyclopedia of African-American writing : five centuries of contribution: trials & triumphs of writers, poets, publications and organizations |publisher=[[Grey House Publishing]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-59237-291-1 |edition=2nd |location=Amenia, NY |chapter=Butler, Octavia E. (Estelle) 6/22/1947–2/24/2006 |oclc=173807586}}</ref><ref name="Rowell">Butler, Octavia E. "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler." Charles H. Rowell. ''Callaloo'' 20.1 (1997): 47–66. {{JSTOR|3299291}}.</ref><ref name= "Pfeiffer">Pfeiffer, John R. "Butler, Octavia Estelle (b. 1947)." in Richard Bleiler (ed.), ''Science Fiction Writers: Critical Studies of the Major Authors from the Early Nineteenth Century to the Present Day'', 2nd edn. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999. 147–158.</ref>
{{quote box
| width = 23em
| quote = I began writing about power because I had so little.
| salign = right
| source = —Octavia E. Butler, in Carolyn S. Davidson's <br />"The Science Fiction of Octavia Butler"
}}

From an early age, an almost paralyzing shyness made it difficult for Butler to socialize with other children. Her awkwardness, paired with a slight [[dyslexia]] that made schoolwork a torment, made Butler an easy target for bullies.<ref name= "obit">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/books/01butler.html | title=Octavia E. Butler, Science Fiction Writer, Dies at 58 | work=The New York Times | date= March 1, 2006 | access-date= March 7, 2016 | last = Fox | first= Margalit}}</ref> She believed that she was "ugly and stupid, clumsy, and socially hopeless."<ref name= PosObs>{{cite news|author=Butler, Octavia E. |title=Positive Obsession|work=Bloodchild and Other Stories|location= New York|publisher= Seven Stories|date= 2005|pages= 123–136}}</ref> As a result, she frequently spent her time reading at the [[Pasadena, California#Education|Pasadena Central Library]].<ref name=Smalls>Smalls, F. Romall. "Butler, Octavia Estelle", in Arnold Markoe, Karen Markoe, and Kenneth T. Jackson (eds), ''The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives'', Vol. 8: 2006–2008. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2010. 65–66.</ref> She also wrote extensively in her "big pink notebook".<ref name= PosObs />

Hooked at first on [[fairy tale]]s and horse stories, Butler quickly became interested in [[science fiction magazine]]s, such as ''[[Amazing Stories]]'', ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]'', and ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction]]''. She began reading stories by [[John Brunner (novelist)|John Brunner]], [[Zenna Henderson]], and [[Theodore Sturgeon]].<ref name=Pfeiffer /><ref name= McCaffery>McCaffery, Larry, and Jim McMenamin, "An Interview with Octavia Butler", in Larry McCaffery (ed.), ''Across the Wounded Galaxies: Interviews with Contemporary American Science Fiction Writers'', Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990.</ref>

{{quote box
| quote = Why aren't there more SF [science fiction] Black writers? There aren't because there aren't. What we don't see, we assume can't be. What a destructive assumption.
| source = —Octavia E. Butler, in "Octavia E. Butler: Telling My Stories"<ref>"Octavia E. Butler: Telling My Stories." Program and Exhibit (April 8 – August 7, 2017), The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.</ref>
| width = 23em
| salign = left
}}

At the age of 10, Butler begged her mother to buy her a [[E. Remington and Sons|Remington typewriter]], on which she "pecked [her] stories two fingered."<ref name=PosObs /> At 12, she watched the film ''[[Devil Girl from Mars]]'' (1954) and concluded that she could write a better story. She drafted what would later become the basis for her ''[[Patternist series|Patternist]]'' novels.<ref name= "McCaffery"/> Until then unaware of the obstacles that a black female writer could encounter, she became unsure of herself for the first time at the age of 13, when her well-intentioned Aunt Hazel said: "Honey ... Negroes can't be writers."<ref name="Belle">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Butler, Octavia Estelle (1947–2005) |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, CA |last=Belle |first=Dixie-Anne |date=2008 |author-link=Carole Boyce Davies |editor-last=Boyce Davies |editor-first=Carole |volume=1 |pages=235–236 |isbn=978-1-85109-700-5 |ol=OL11949337M}}</ref> But Butler persevered in her desire to publish a story, and even asked her junior high school science teacher, William Pfaff, to type the first manuscript she submitted to a science fiction magazine.<ref name="PosObs"/><ref name= Logan>Logan, Robert W. "Butler, Octavia E.", in Darlene Clark Hine (ed.), ''Black Women in America: A Historical Encyclopedia'', 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.</ref>

After graduating from [[John Muir High School]] in 1965, Butler worked during the day and attended [[Pasadena City College]] (PCC) at night.<ref name="Logan"/> As a freshman at PCC, she won a college-wide short-story contest, earning her first income ($15) as a writer.<ref name=PosObs /> She also got the "germ of the idea" for what would become her novel ''[[Kindred (novel)|Kindred]]''. An African-American classmate involved in the [[Black power movement|Black Power movement]] loudly criticized previous generations of African Americans for being subservient to whites. As Butler explained in later interviews, the young man's remarks were a catalyst that led her to respond with a story providing historical context for the subservience, showing that it could be understood as silent but courageous survival.<ref name="Rowell"/><ref name= See>{{cite news|author=See, Lisa|title=PW Interviews: Octavia E. Butler|work= Publishers Weekly|date= December 13, 1993}}</ref> In 1968, Butler graduated from PCC with an [[associate of arts]] degree with a focus in history.<ref name=Gant /><ref name= Pfeiffer />

== Rise to success ==
{{quote box
| width = 25em
| quote = Who am I? I am a forty-seven-year-old writer who can remember being a ten-year-old writer and who expects someday to be an eighty-year-old writer. I am also comfortably asocial—a hermit. ... A pessimist if I'm not careful, a feminist, a Black, a former Baptist, an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive.
| salign = left
| source = —Octavia E. Butler, reading her description of herself included in ''Parable of the Sower'', during a 1994 interview with Jelani Cobb
}}

Although Butler's mother wanted her to become a secretary in order to have a steady income,<ref name=Rowell /> Butler continued to work at a series of [[Temporary work|temporary jobs]]. She preferred less demanding work that would allow her to get up at two or three in the morning to write. Success continued to elude her. She styled her stories after the white-and-male-dominated science fiction she had grown up reading.<ref name=EAAW /><ref name=PosObs /> She enrolled at [[California State University, Los Angeles]], but switched to taking writing courses through [[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]] Extension.

During the Open Door Workshop of the [[Writers Guild of America West]], a program designed to mentor minority writers, her writing impressed one of the teachers, noted science-fiction writer [[Harlan Ellison]]. He encouraged her to attend the six-week [[Clarion Workshop|Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop]] in [[Clarion, Pennsylvania]]. There, Butler met the Black science fiction writer [[Samuel R. Delany]], who became a longtime friend.<ref>{{cite news | last= Davis | first=Marcia | url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/27/AR2006022701585_pf.html | title=Octavia Butler, A Lonely, Bright Star Of the Sci-Fi Universe | work=The Washington Post' | date=February 28, 2006}}</ref> She also sold her first stories: "Childfinder" to Ellison, for his unpublished anthology ''[[The Last Dangerous Visions]]'' (eventually published in ''[[Unexpected Stories]]'' in 2014<ref>{{Cite news|last=Bradford|first=K. Tempest|date=2014-07-10|title=An 'Unexpected' Treat For Octavia E. Butler Fans|language=en|work=NPR|url=https://www.npr.org/2014/07/10/320746103/an-unexpected-treat-for-octavia-e-butler-fans|access-date=2021-10-15}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=City Lights Bookshop |date=2022 |title=Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1986 |url=https://commonslibrary.org/dangerous-visions-and-new-worlds-radical-science-fiction-1950-to-1986/ |website=Commons Social Change Library}}</ref>); and [[Bloodchild and Other Stories#"Crossover"|"Crossover"]] to [[Robin Wilson (author)|Robin Scott Wilson]], the director of the Clarion workshop, who published it in the 1971 Clarion anthology.<ref name="Gant" /><ref name="Pfeiffer" /><ref name="Logan"/><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/2014/07/10/320746103/an-unexpected-treat-for-octavia-e-butler-fans |title=An 'Unexpected' Treat for Octavia E. Butler Fans |last=Tempest Bradford |first=K. |work=NPR |access-date=August 26, 2018 |language=en |author-link=K. Tempest Bradford}}</ref>

For the next five years, Butler worked on the novels that became known as the [[Patternist series]]: ''[[Patternmaster]]'' (1976), ''[[Mind of My Mind]]'' (1977), and ''[[Survivor (Octavia Butler novel)|Survivor]]'' (1978). In 1978, she was able to stop working at temporary jobs and live on her income from writing.<ref name=Pfeiffer /> She took a break from the Patternist series to research and write a stand-alone novel, ''[[Kindred (novel)|Kindred]]'' (1979). She finished the Patternist series with ''[[Wild Seed (novel)|Wild Seed]]'' (1980) and ''[[Clay's Ark]]'' (1984).

Butler's rise to prominence began in 1984 when "[[Speech Sounds]]" won the [[Hugo Award]] for Short Story and, a year later, "[[Bloodchild and Other Stories#"Bloodchild"|Bloodchild]]" won the Hugo Award, the [[Locus Award]], and the ''[[DNA Publications|Science Fiction Chronicle]]'' Reader Award for Best Novelette. In the meantime, Butler traveled to the [[Amazon rainforest]] and the [[Andes]] to do research for what would become the ''Xenogenesis'' trilogy: ''Dawn'' (1987), ''Adulthood Rites'' (1988), and ''Imago ''(1989).<ref name=Pfeiffer /> These stories were republished in 2000 as the collection ''[[Lilith's Brood]]''.

During the 1990s, Butler completed the novels that strengthened her fame as a writer: ''[[Parable of the Sower (novel)|Parable of the Sower]]'' (1993) and ''[[Parable of the Talents (novel)|Parable of the Talents]]'' (1998). In addition, in 1995, she became the first science-fiction writer to be awarded a [[John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation]] [[MacArthur Fellows Program|fellowship]], an award that came with a prize of $295,000.<ref name="Holden">Holden, Rebecca J, and Nisi Shawl. ''Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler''. Seattle, WA: Aqueduct Press, 2013.</ref><ref>Fry, Joan. "Congratulations! You've Just Won $295,000: An Interview with Octavia Butler." ''Poets & Writers Magazine'' (March/April 1997).</ref>

In 1999, after her mother's death, Butler moved to [[Lake Forest Park, Washington]]. ''The Parable of the Talents'' had won the [[Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association|Science Fiction Writers of America]]'s [[Nebula Award]] for Best Novel, and she had plans for four more Parable novels: ''Parable of the Trickster'', ''Parable of the Teacher'', ''Parable of Chaos'', and ''Parable of Clay''. However, after several failed attempts to begin ''The Parable of the Trickster'', she decided to stop work in the series.<ref name=Mehaffy>Butler, Octavia E. {{"'}}Radio Imagination': Octavia Butler on the Politics of Narrative Embodiment." Interview with Marilyn Mehaffy and Ana Louise Keating. ''MELUS'' 26.1 (2001): 45–76. {{JSTOR|3185496}}. {{doi|10.2307/3185496}}.</ref>

In later interviews, Butler explained that the research and writing of the Parable novels had overwhelmed and depressed her, so she had shifted to composing something "lightweight" and "fun" instead. This became her last book, the science-fiction [[Vampire literature|vampire novel]] ''[[Fledgling (Butler novel)|Fledgling]]'' (2005).<ref>Butler, Octavia. [http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/11/158201 "Science Fiction Writer Octavia Butler on Race, Global Warming, and Religion."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051112234721/http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05%2F11%2F11%2F158201 |date=November 12, 2005 }} Interview by [[Juan Gonzalez (journalist)|Juan Gonzalez]] and [[Amy Goodman]]. ''Democracy Now!'' November 11, 2005.</ref>

==Writing career==

===Early stories, Patternist series, and ''Kindred'': 1971–1984===

Butler's first work published was "Crossover" in the 1971 Clarion Workshop anthology. She also sold the short story "Childfinder" to Harlan Ellison for the anthology ''[[The Last Dangerous Visions]]''. "I thought I was on my way as a writer", Butler recalled in her short-fiction collection ''[[Bloodchild and Other Stories]]'', which contains "Crossover." "In fact, I had five more years of rejection slips and horrible little jobs ahead of me before I sold another word."<ref name=ACO>Butler, Octavia E. "Afterword to Crossover." ''Bloodchild and Other Stories''. New York: Seven Stories Press. 1996. p.&nbsp;120.</ref>

Starting in 1974, Butler worked on a series of novels that would later be collected as the [[Patternist series]], which depicts the transformation of humanity into three genetic groups: the dominant Patternists, humans who have been bred with heightened [[telepathic]] powers and are bound to the Patternmaster via a [[Psionics|psionic]] chain; their enemies the Clayarks, [[Mutants in fiction|disease-mutated]] animal-like [[superhuman]]s; and the Mutes, ordinary humans bonded to the Patternists.<ref name=Mehaffy />

The first novel, ''[[Patternist series#Patternmaster (1976)|Patternmaster]]'' (1976), eventually became the last installment in the series' internal chronology. Set in the distant future, it tells of the [[Bildungsroman|coming-of-age]] of Teray, a young Patternist who fights for position within Patternist society and eventually for the role of Patternmaster.<ref name="Holden" />

Next came ''[[Mind of My Mind]]'' (1977), a prequel to ''Patternmaster'' set in the 20th century. The story follows the development of Mary, the creator of the psionic chain and the first Patternmaster to bind all Patternists, and her inevitable struggle for power with her father Doro, a [[Parapsychology|parapsychological]] vampire who seeks to retain control over the psionic children he has bred over the centuries.<ref name="Gant" /><ref name="Pfeiffer" />

{{quote box
| width = 20em
| quote = To survive,<br />Know the past.<br />Let it touch you.<br />Then let<br />The past<br />Go.
| salign = left
| source = —From "Earthseed: The Books of the Living," ''Parable of the Talents''.
}}

The third book of the series, ''[[Survivor (Octavia Butler novel)|Survivor]]'', was published in 1978. The titular survivor is Alanna, the adopted child of the Missionaries, [[Christian fundamentalism|fundamentalist Christians]] who have traveled to another planet to escape Patternist control and Clayark infection. Captured by a local tribe called the Tehkohn, Alanna learns their language and adopts their customs, knowledge which she then uses to help the Missionaries avoid bondage and assimilation into a rival tribe that opposes the Tehkohn.<ref name="Holden" /><ref name="Bogstad">Bogstad, Janice. "Octavia E. Butler and Power Relations." ''Janus'' 4.4 (1978–79): 28–31.</ref> Butler would later call Survivor the least favorite of her books, and withdraw it from reprinting.

After ''Survivor'', Butler took a break from the Patternist series to write what would become her best-selling novel, ''[[Kindred (novel)|Kindred]]'' (1979), as well as the short story "Near of Kin" (1979).<ref name="Holden" /> In ''Kindred'', Dana, an African-American woman, is repeatedly transported in time between 1976 Los Angeles and an early 19th-century plantation on the [[Eastern Shore of Maryland]]. There she meets ancestors: Alice, a [[Free Negro|free black woman]] [[Kidnapping into slavery in the United States|forced into slavery]] later in life, and Rufus, the white son of a [[Planter class|planter]] who also becomes a [[Slavery|slaveholder]]. In "Near of Kin", the protagonist discovers a taboo relationship in her family as she goes through her mother's things after her death.<ref name="Holden" />

In 1980, Butler published the fourth book of the Patternist series, ''[[Wild Seed (novel)|Wild Seed]]'', whose narrative became the series' origin story. Set in Africa and America during the 17th century, ''Wild Seed'' traces the struggle between the four-thousand-year-old [[Parapsychology|parapsychological]] vampire Doro and his "wild" child and bride, the three-hundred-year-old shapeshifter and healer Anyanwu. Doro, who has bred [[Psionics|psionic]] children for centuries, deceives Anyanwu into becoming one of his breeders, but she eventually escapes and uses her gifts to create communities that rival Doro's. When Doro finally tracks her down, Anyanwu, tired by decades of escaping or fighting Doro, decides to commit suicide, forcing him to admit his need for her.<ref name="Gant" /><ref name="Pfeiffer" /><ref name="Holden" />

In 1983, Butler published "Speech Sounds", a story set in a [[Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction|post-apocalyptic]] [[Los Angeles]] where a [[pandemic]] has caused most humans to lose their ability to read, speak, or write. For many, this impairment is accompanied by uncontrollable feelings of jealousy, resentment, and rage. "Speech Sounds" received the 1984 [[Hugo Award for Best Short Story]].<ref name="Holden" />

In 1984, Butler released the last book of the Patternmaster series, ''[[Clay's Ark]]''. Set in the [[Mojave Desert]], it focuses on a colony of humans infected by an extraterrestrial microorganism brought to Earth by the one surviving astronaut of the spaceship Clay's Ark. As the microorganism compels its hosts to spread it, the infected humans kidnap others to infect them and, in the case of women, give birth to the mutant, [[sphinx]]-like children who will be the first members of the Clayark race.<ref name="Gant" />

===''Bloodchild'' and the Xenogenesis trilogy: 1984–1989===
{{See also|Bloodchild and Other Stories}}
Butler followed ''Clay's Ark'' with the critically acclaimed short story "Bloodchild" (1984). Set on an alien planet, it depicts the complex relationship between human refugees and the insect-like aliens who keep them in a preserve to protect them, but also to use them as hosts for breeding their young. Sometimes called Butler's "[[Male pregnancy|pregnant man story]]," "Bloodchild" won the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards, and the Science Fiction Chronicle Reader Award.<ref name="Holden" />

Three years later, Butler published ''Dawn'', the first installment of what would become known as the [[Lilith's Brood|Xenogenesis trilogy]]. The series examines the theme of alienation by creating situations in which humans are forced to coexist with other species to survive and extends Butler's recurring exploration of genetically altered, hybrid individuals and communities.<ref name="Gant" /><ref name="Mehaffy" /> In ''Dawn'', protagonist Lilith Iyapo finds herself in a spaceship after surviving a nuclear apocalypse that destroys Earth. Saved by the [[Oankali]] aliens, the human survivors must combine their DNA with an ooloi, the Oankali's [[Third gender|third sex]], in order to create a new race that eliminates a self-destructive flaw in humans: their aggressive hierarchical tendencies.<ref name="Holden" /> Butler followed ''Dawn'' with "[[The Evening and the Morning and the Night]]" (1987), a story about how certain females with "Duryea-Gode Disease", a genetic disorder which causes [[Dissociation (psychology)|dissociative states]], obsessive [[Self-harm|self-mutilation]], and violent psychosis, are able to control others with the disease.<ref name="Holden" />

''Adulthood Rites'' (1988) and ''Imago'' (1989), the second and the third books in the Xenogenesis trilogy, focus on the predatory and prideful tendencies that affect human evolution, as humans now revolt against Lilith's Oankali-engineered progeny. Set thirty years after humanity's return to Earth, ''Adulthood Rites'' centers on the kidnapping of Lilith's part-human, part alien child, Akin, by a human-only group who are against the Oankali. Akin learns about both aspects of his identity through his life with the humans as well as the Akjai. The Oankali-only group becomes their mediator, and ultimately creates a human-only [[Colonization of Mars|colony on Mars]].<ref name="Holden" /> In ''Imago'', the Oankali create a third species more powerful than themselves: the shape-shifting healer Jodahs, a human-Oankali ooloi who must find suitable human male and female mates to survive its metamorphosis and who finds them in the most unexpected of places, in a village of renegade humans.<ref name="Gant" /><ref name="Pfeiffer" />

===The Parable series: 1993–1998===
In the mid-1990s, Butler published two novels later designated as the Parable (or Earthseed) series. The books depict the struggle of the Earthseed community to survive the socioeconomic and political collapse of 21st-century America due to poor [[environmental stewardship]], corporate greed, and the [[Distribution of wealth|growing gap between the wealthy and the poor]].<ref name="Holden" /><ref name="Omry">Omry, Keren. "Octavia Butler (1947–2006)", in Yolanda Williams Page (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers'', Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2007. 64–70.</ref> The books propose alternate philosophical views and religious interventions as solutions to such dilemmas.<ref name="Gant" />

The first book in the series, ''[[Parable of the Sower (novel)|Parable of the Sower]]'' (1993), introduces the fifteen-year-old protagonist, Lauren Oya Olamina, and is set in a [[Utopian and dystopian fiction|dystopian]] [[California]] in the 2020s. Lauren, who lives with a syndrome causing her to literally feel any physical pain she witnesses, struggles with the religious beliefs and physical isolation of her hometown Robledo. She forms a new belief system, Earthseed, which posits a future for the human race on other planets. When Robledo is destroyed and Lauren's family and neighbors killed, she and two other survivors flee north. Recruiting members of varying social backgrounds along the way, Lauren relocates her new group to [[Northern California]], naming her new community Acorn.

Butler's 1998 follow-up novel, ''[[Parable of the Talents (novel)|Parable of the Talents]]'', is set some time after Lauren's death and is told through the excerpts of Lauren's journals, as framed by the commentary of her estranged daughter, Larkin.<ref name="Gant" /> It details the invasion of Acorn by right-wing fundamentalist Christians, Lauren's attempts to survive their religious "re-education," and the final triumph of Earthseed as a community and a doctrine.<ref name="Holden" /><ref name="Allbery">Allbery, Russ. [http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/0-446-61038-0.html "Review of Parable of the Talents"]. Eyrie.org. April 5, 2006.</ref>

Between her Earthseed novels, Butler published the collection ''[[Bloodchild and Other Stories]]'' (1995), which includes the short stories "Bloodchild," "The Evening and the Morning and the Night," "Near of Kin," "Speech Sounds," and "Crossover," as well as the non-fiction pieces "Positive Obsession" and "''Furor Scribendi''".<ref name="Calvin">Calvin, Ritch. "An Octavia E. Butler Bibliography (1976–2008)", ''Utopian Studies'' 19.3 (2008): 485–516. {{JSTOR|20719922}}.</ref>

===Late stories and ''Fledgling'': 2003–2005===
{{further|Symbiosis in fiction}}

After several years of [[writer's block]], Butler published the short stories "Amnesty" (2003) and "The Book of Martha" (2003), and her second standalone novel, ''Fledgling'' (2005). Both short stories focus on how impossible conditions force an ordinary woman to make a distressing choice.<ref name="Curtis">Curtis, Claire P. "Theorizing Fear: Octavia Butler and the Realist Utopia." ''Utopian Studies'' 19.3 (2008): 411–431. {{JSTOR|20719919}}.</ref> In "Amnesty", an alien abductee recounts her painful abuse at the hand of the unwitting aliens and upon her release, by humans, and explains why she chose to work as a translator for the aliens now that the Earth's economy is in a deep depression. In "The Book of Martha", God asks a middle-aged African-American novelist to make one important change to fix humanity's destructive ways. Martha's choice—to make humans have vivid and satisfying dreams—means that she will no longer be able to do what she loves in writing fiction.<ref name="Holden" /> These two stories were added to the 2005 edition of ''Bloodchild and Other Stories''.<ref name="Holden" />

Butler's last publication during her lifetime was ''[[Fledgling (Butler novel)|Fledgling]]'', a novel exploring the culture of a [[vampire]] community living in [[symbiosis]] with humans.<ref name="EAAW" /> Set on the [[West Coast of the United States|West Coast]], it tells of the [[Bildungsroman|coming-of-age]] of a young female hybrid vampire named Shori, whose species is called Ina. The only survivor of a vicious attack on her families that left her an amnesiac, she must seek justice for her dead, build a new family, and relearn how to be an Ina.<ref name="Holden" /> Scholars like Susana M. Morris read ''Fledgling'' as a powerful disruption of the vampire genre—a genre which tends to feature pale vampire heroes with paternalist tendencies that privilege whiteness. Butler disrupts this narrative by centering Shori, the protagonist of ''Fledgling'', a petite Black female Ina.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Morris|first=Susana M.|date=2013|title=Black Girls Are from the Future: Afrofuturist Feminism in Octavia E. Butler's ''Fledgling''|journal=WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly|volume=40|issue=3–4|pages=146–166|doi=10.1353/wsq.2013.0034|s2cid=85289747|issn=1934-1520}}</ref>

== Later years and death ==
During her last years, Butler struggled with [[writer's block]] and [[Depression (mood)|depression]], partly caused by the side effects of medication for [[Hypertension|high blood pressure]].<ref name="Logan" /><ref name="BLC">{{cite book |chapter=Butler, Octavia 1947–2006 |title=Black Literature Criticism: Classic and Emerging Authors since 1950 |editor-first= Jelena O. | editor-last = Krstovic |edition=2nd |volume=1 |location= Detroit |publisher=Gale |year=2008 |pages= 244–258 |isbn= 9-781-41443-1703 |via= Google Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dZchmwEACAAJ}}</ref> She continued writing and taught at Clarion's Science Fiction Writers' Workshop regularly. In 2005, she was inducted into [[Chicago State University]]'s International Black Writers Hall of Fame.<ref name="EAAW" />

Butler died outside of her home in [[Lake Forest Park, Washington]], on February 24, 2006, aged 58.<ref name="obit" /> Contemporary news accounts were inconsistent as to the cause of her death, with some reporting that she had a fatal [[stroke]] and others indicating that she died of head injuries after falling and striking her head on her cobbled walkway.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/entertainment-news/2006/02/28/sci-fi-author-octavia-butler-dies-58|title=Sci-fi author Octavia Butler dies at 58| date=February 28, 2006 |work=The Advocate}}</ref> Another interpretation, backed by ''[[Locus (magazine)|Locus]]'' magazine, is that a stroke caused the fall and the subsequent head injuries.<ref name="locus-obit">{{cite journal |title= Obituaries |journal=[[Locus (magazine)|Locus]] |issn= 0047-4959 |issue= 4.543 |volume=56}}</ref>

Butler maintained a longstanding relationship with the [[Huntington Library]] and bequeathed her papers, including manuscripts, correspondence, school papers, notebooks, and photographs, to the library in her will.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2009/10/octavia-butler.html |title=Octavia Butler's papers going to the Huntington Library |date=October 2, 2009 |website=LA Times Blogs – Jacket Copy |language=en-US |access-date=October 23, 2017}}</ref> The collection, comprising 9,062 pieces in 386 boxes, 1 volume, 2 binders and 18 broadsides, was made available to scholars and researchers in 2010.<ref name="papers">{{cite web|title=Octavia E. Butler Papers|url=http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8hm5br8/|access-date=January 11, 2017|website=oac.cdlib.org|publisher=Online Archives of California}}</ref> Butler donated one of her typewriters to Smithsonian Institution's Anacostia Community Museum for a 2003-2004 exhibition celebrating Black American literature.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Magazine |first1=Smithsonian |last2=Kearse |first2=Stephen |title=In Her Inventive and Prescient Stories, Octavia Butler Wrote Herself Into the Science Fiction Canon |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/inventive-prescient-stories-octavia-butler-wrote-herself-into-science-fiction-canon-180985642/ |access-date=2025-01-16 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref>

==Themes and style==

=== Critique of present-day hierarchies ===
In multiple interviews and essays, Butler explained her view of humanity: inherently flawed by an innate tendency towards [[Social stratification|hierarchical thinking]] which leads to [[tribalism]], [[caste]], intolerance, violence and, if not checked, the ultimate destruction of our species.<ref name="Gant" /><ref name="Pfeiffer" /><ref name="AEW">"Butler, Octavia E.", ''American Ethnic Writers'', Revised edn. Vol. 1. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2009. 168–175.</ref>

"Simple [[pecking order|peck-order]] bullying", she wrote in her essay "A World without Racism",<ref name="WWR">[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5245679 "A World without Racism."] ''NPR Weekend Edition Saturday''. September 1, 2001.</ref> "is only the beginning of the kind of hierarchical behavior that can lead to [[racism]], [[sexism]], [[ethnocentrism]], [[Class discrimination|classism]], and all the other 'isms' that cause so much suffering in the world." Her stories, then, often replay humanity's domination of the weak by the strong as a type of [[parasitism]].<ref name="AEW" /> These "others", whether aliens, vampires, superhuman, or slave masters, find themselves defied by a protagonist who embodies difference, diversity, and change, so that, as John R. Pfeiffer notes, "In one sense [Butler's] fables are trials of solutions to the self-destructive condition in which she finds mankind."<ref name="Pfeiffer" />

{{quote box
| align = right
| width = 20em
| quote = Embrace diversity<br />
Unite—<br />
or be divided,<br />
robbed,<br />
ruled,<br />
killed<br />
By those who see you as prey.<br />
Embrace diversity<br />
Or be destroyed.
| salign = left
| source = —From "Earthseed: The Books of the Living," ''Parable of the Sower''.
}}

=== Remaking of the human ===
In his essay on the [[Sociobiology|sociobiological]] backgrounds of Butler's ''Xenogenesis'' trilogy, J. Adam Johns describes how Butler's narratives counteract the [[death drive]] behind the hierarchical impulse with an innate love of life ([[biophilia hypothesis|biophilia]]), particularly of different, strange life.<ref name="Johns">Johns, J. Adam. "Becoming Medusa: Octavia Butler's ''Lilith's Brood'' and Sociobiology." ''Science Fiction Studies'' 37.3 (2010): 382–400.</ref> Specifically, Butler's stories feature [[Genetics in fiction|gene manipulation]], interbreeding, [[interracial marriage]] and [[miscegenation]], [[Symbiosis in fiction|symbiosis]], mutation, alien contact, [[rape]], [[intersectionality]], contamination, and other forms of hybridity as the means to correct the sociobiological causes of hierarchical violence.<ref name="Ferreira">Ferreira, Maria Aline. "Symbiotic Bodies and Evolutionary Tropes in the Work of Octavia Butler." ''Science Fiction Studies'' 37. 3 (November 2010): 401–415.</ref> As De Witt Douglas Kilgore and Ranu Samantrai note, "in [Butler's] narratives the undoing of the human body is both literal and metaphorical, for it signifies the profound changes necessary to shape a world not organized by hierarchical violence."<ref name="Kilgore">Kilgore, De Witt Douglas, and Ranu Samantrai. "A Memorial to Octavia E. Butler." ''Science Fiction Studies'' 37.3 (November 2010): 353–361. {{JSTOR|25746438}}.</ref> The evolutionary maturity achieved by the bioengineered hybrid protagonist at the end of the story, then, signals the possible evolution of the dominant community in terms of tolerance, acceptance of diversity, and a desire to wield power responsibly.<ref name="AEW" />

=== Survivor as hero ===
Butler's protagonists are disenfranchised individuals who endure, compromise, and embrace radical change in order to survive. As De Witt Douglas Kilgore and Ranu Samantrai note, her stories focus on minority characters whose historical background makes them already intimate with brutal violation and exploitation, and therefore the need to compromise to survive.<ref name="Kilgore" /> Even when endowed with extra, paranormal abilities, these characters are forced to experience unprecedented physical, mental, and emotional distress and exclusion to ensure a minimal degree of [[Agency (sociology)|agency]] and to prevent humanity from achieving self-destruction.<ref name="Gant" /><ref name="Belle" /> In many of her stories, their acts of courage become acts of understanding, and in some cases, love, as they reach a crucial compromise with those in power.<ref name="AEW" /> Ultimately, Butler's focus on disenfranchised characters serves to illustrate both the historical exploitation of minorities and how the resolve of one such exploited individual may bring on critical change.<ref name="Gant" />

=== Creation of alternative communities ===
Butler's stories feature mixed communities founded by African protagonists and populated by diverse, if similar-minded individuals. Members may be humans of African, European, or Asian descent, extraterrestrial (such as the N'Tlic in [[Bloodchild and Other Stories|''Bloodchild'']]), from a different species (such as the vampiric Ina in [[Fledgling (Butler novel)|''Fledgling'']]), and cross-species (such as the human-Oankali Akin and Jodahs in the [[Lilith's Brood|''Xenogenesis'' trilogy]]). In some stories, the community's hybridity results in a flexible view of sexuality and gender (for instance, the [[Polyamory|polyamorous]] extended families in ''Fledgling''). Thus, Butler creates bonds between groups that are generally considered to be separate and unrelated, and suggests hybridity as "the potential root of good family and blessed community life".<ref name="Kilgore" />

''[[Kindred (novel)|Kindred]]'' is one of the only works of 20th-century American literature to feature a [[Interracial marriage in the United States|married interracial couple]].{{citation needed|date=May 2025}} As Farah Peterson comments, in an American society gripped by racism, it took "a fantasy novelist... to imagine how one of these marriages would work in practice" and write the possibility of such a relationship into literary history.<ref name="peterson">{{cite web|last=Peterson|first=Farah|title=Alone with Kindred|url=https://www.threepennyreview.com/alone-with-kindred/|publisher=threepennyreview|access-date=30 August 2023}}</ref>

=== Relationship to Afrofuturism ===
{{quote box
| align = right
| width = 20em
| quote = Charlie Rose: "What then is central to what you want to say about race?"<br /><br />
Butler: "Do I want to say something central about race? Aside from, 'Hey we're here!'?"
| salign = left
| source = —From Butler's interview on ''[[Charlie Rose]]''. Thursday, June 1, 2000.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Rose |first1=Charlie |title=Octavia Butler |url=https://charlierose.com/videos/28978 |website=Charlie Rose |access-date=5 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200605145423/https://charlierose.com/videos/28978 |archive-date=5 June 2020}}</ref>
}}

Author Octavia E. Butler is known for blending science fiction with African American spiritualism.<ref>Octavia E. Butler. (2017, April 28). Biography; A&E Television Networks. https://www.biography.com/writer/octavia-e-butler</ref>

Butler's work has been associated with the genre of [[Afrofuturism]],<ref name="Sinker">Sinker, Mark. "Loving the Alien." ''The Wire'' 96 (February 1992): 30–32.</ref> a term coined by [[Mark Dery]] to describe "[[speculative fiction]] that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of 20th-century [[technoculture]]".<ref name="Bould">Bould, Mark. "The Ships Landed Long Ago: Afrofuturism and Black SF", ''Science Fiction Studies'' 34.2 (July 2007): 177–186. {{JSTOR|4241520}}.</ref> Some critics, however, have noted that while Butler's protagonists are of African descent, the communities they create are multi-ethnic and, sometimes, multi-species. As [[De Witt Douglas Kilgore]] and [[Ranu Samantrai]] explain in their 2010 memorial to Butler, while keeping "an [[Afrocentrism|afro-centric]] sensibility at the core of narratives", her "insistence on hybridity beyond the point of discomfort" and grim themes deny both the ethnocentric [[escapism]] of afrofuturism and the sanitized perspective of white-dominated [[Pluralism (political philosophy)|liberal pluralism]].<ref name="Kilgore" />

''[[Wild Seed (novel)|Wild Seed]]'', of the Patternist series, is considered to particularly fit ideas of Afrofuturist thematic concerns, as the narrative of two immortal Africans Doro and Anyanwu features science fiction technologies and an [[Alternate history|alternate anti-colonialist history]] of seventeenth-century America.<ref name="Canavan">Canavan, Gerry. "[http://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1235&context=english_fac Bred to Be Superhuman: Comic Books and Afrofuturism in Octavia Butler's Patternist Series] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151211163347/http://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1235&context=english_fac|date=11 December 2015}}." ''Paradoxa'' 25 (2013): 253–287.</ref><ref name="Off the Planet">{{Cite book|title=Off the Planet|year=2004|publisher=John Libbey Publishing|isbn=978-0-86196-938-8|editor-last=Hayward|editor-first=Philip|doi=10.2307/j.ctt2005s0z}}</ref>

=== Point of view ===
Butler began reading science fiction at a young age, but quickly became disenchanted by the genre's unimaginative portrayal of ethnicity and class as well as by its lack of noteworthy female protagonists.<ref>Smith Foster, Frances. "Octavia Butler's Black Female Future Fiction." ''Extrapolation'' 23.1 (1982): 37–49.</ref> She determined to correct those gaps by, as De Witt Douglas Kilgore and Ranu Samantrai point out, "choosing to write self-consciously as an African-American woman marked by a particular history"<ref name="Kilgore" />—what Butler herself referred to as "writing myself in."<ref name="obit" /> Butler's stories, therefore, are usually written from the perspective of a marginalized black woman whose difference from the dominant agents increases her potential for reconfiguring the future of her society.<ref name="Kilgore" />

=== Audience ===
Publishers and critics have labelled Butler's work as science fiction.<ref name="Gant" /> While Butler enjoyed the genre deeply, calling it "potentially the freest genre in existence,"<ref name="Beal">Butler, Octavia. "''Black Scholar'' Interview with Octavia Butler: Black Women and the Science Fiction Genre." Frances M. Beal. ''Black Scholar'' (Mar/Apr. 1986): 14–18. {{JSTOR|41067255}}.</ref> she resisted being branded a [[Genre fiction|genre writer]].<ref name="Logan" /> Her narratives have drawn attention of people from varied ethnic and cultural backgrounds.<ref name="Belle" /> She claimed to have three loyal audiences: black readers, science-fiction fans, and feminists.<ref name="Kilgore" />

== Critical reception ==
''[[The New York Times]]'' regarded her novels as "evocative" and "often troubling" explorations of "far-reaching issues of race, sex, power".<ref name="obit" /> Writing in ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction]]'', [[Orson Scott Card]] called her examination of humanity "clear-headed and brutally unsentimental",<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Card |first=Orson Scott |date=January 1992 |title=Books to Look For |magazine=Fantasy and Science Fiction}}</ref> and ''[[The Village Voice]]''{{'}}s [[Dorothy Allison]] described her as "writing the most detailed social criticism" where "the hard edge of cruelty, violence, and domination is described in stark detail".<ref>{{Cite news|title=The Future of Female: Octavia Butler's Mother Lode|last=Allison|first=Dorothy|date=December 19, 1989|work=The Village Voice|page=67}}</ref> ''[[Locus (magazine)|Locus]]'' regarded her as "one of those authors who pay serious attention to the way human beings actually work together and against each other, and she does so with extraordinary plausibility."<ref>{{cite web|title=Parable of the Sower: Synopses & Reviews|url=http://www.powells.com/book/parable-of-the-sower-9780446675505|website=Powell's|access-date= March 24, 2018}}</ref> The ''[[Houston Post]]'' ranked her "among the best SF writers, blessed with a mind capable of conceiving complicated futuristic situations that shed considerable light on our current affairs."<ref>{{cite web|title=Dawn: Synopses & Reviews|url=http://www.powells.com/book/dawn-9780446603775|website=Powell's|access-date= March 24, 2018}}</ref>

Some scholars have focused on Butler's choice to write from the point of view of marginal characters and communities and thus "expanded SF to reflect the experiences and expertise of the disenfranchised".<ref name="Kilgore" /> While surveying Butler's novels, critic [[Burton Raffel]] noted how race and gender influence her writing: "I do not think any of these eight books could have been written by a man, as they most emphatically were not, nor, with the single exception of her first book, ''Pattern-Master'' (1976), are likely to have been written, as they most emphatically were, by anyone but an African American."<ref name="Raffel" /> Robert Crossley commended how Butler's "[[Feminist literature|feminist aesthetic]]" works to expose sexual, racial, and cultural [[chauvinism]] because it is "enriched by a historical consciousness that shapes the depiction of enslavement both in the real past and in imaginary pasts and futures."<ref name="Kilgore" />

Butler's prose has been praised by critics including the ''[[The Washington Post|Washington Post Book World]]'', where her craftsmanship has been described as "superb",<ref>{{Cite news|title=Mysteries of the Mayans|last=Grant|first=Richard|date=July 31, 1988|newspaper=Washington Post|page=X8|via=Nexis Uni}}</ref> and by Burton Raffel, who regards Butler's prose as "carefully, expertly crafted" and "crystalline, at its best, sensuous, sensitive, exact, not in the least directed at calling attention to itself".<ref name="Raffel">Raffel, Burton. "Genre to the Rear, Race and Gender to the Fore: The Novels of Octavia E. Butler." ''Literary Review'' 38.3 (Spring 1995): 454–461.</ref>

== Influence ==
In interviews with Charles Rowell and [[Randall Kenan]], Butler credited the struggles of her working-class mother as an important influence on her writing.<ref name="Rowell" /><ref name="Kenan">{{cite journal |author=Kenan Randall |title=An Interview with Octavia E. Butler|journal=Callaloo|volume= 14|number=2 |date=1991|pages= 495–504|doi=10.2307/2931654|jstor=2931654}}</ref> Because Butler's mother received little formal education herself, she made sure that young Butler was given the opportunity to learn by bringing her reading materials that her white employers threw away, from magazines to advanced books.<ref name="PosObs" /> She also encouraged Butler to write. She bought her daughter her first typewriter when she was 10 years old, and, seeing her hard at work on a story casually remarked that maybe one day she could become a writer, causing Butler to realize that it was possible to make a living as an author.<ref name="Gant" /> A decade later, Mrs. Butler would pay more than a month's rent to have an agent review her daughter's work.<ref name="PosObs" /> She also provided Butler with the money she had been saving for dental work to pay for Butler's scholarship so she could attend the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop, where Butler sold her first two stories.<ref name="Holden" />

A second person to play an influential role in Butler's work was the American writer [[Harlan Ellison]]. As a teacher at the Open Door Workshop of the [[Screen Writers Guild]] of America, he gave Butler her first honest and constructive criticism on her writing after years of lukewarm responses from composition teachers and baffling rejections from publishers.<ref name="Belle" /> Impressed by her work, Ellison suggested she attend the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop and even contributed $100 towards her application fee. As the years passed, Ellison's mentorship became a close friendship.<ref name="Holden" />

Butler herself has been highly influential in legacy of science fiction, particularly for people of color. In 2015, writers [[adrienne maree brown]] and [[Walidah Imarisha]] co-edited ''Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements'' ([[AK Press]]), a collection of 20 short stories and essays about [[social justice]], inspired by Butler.<ref>{{Cite web|title=a book review by Venetria K. Patton: Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements|url=https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/octavias|access-date=2020-06-24|website=www.nyjournalofbooks.com}}</ref>  In 2020, brown and Toshi Reagon, creator of an opera adaptation of ''Parable of the Sower'', began collaborating on a podcast called ''Octavia's Parables''.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Liptak|first=Andrew|date=2020-06-22|title=A New Podcast Will Take a Deep Dive Into Octavia Butler's Parable Novels|url=https://www.tor.com/2020/06/22/octavia-butler-parable-sower-talents-podcast-adrienne-maree-brown-toshi-reagon-listen/|access-date=2020-06-24|website=Tor.com|language=en-US}}</ref>

== Adaptations ==
''Parable of the Sower'' was adapted as ''Parable of the Sower: The Opera'', written by American folk/blues musician [[Toshi Reagon]] in collaboration with her mother, singer and composer [[Bernice Johnson Reagon]]. The adaptation's libretto and musical score combine African-American [[Spiritual (music)|spirituals]], [[Soul music|soul]], [[rock and roll]], and [[folk music]] into rounds to be performed by singers sitting in a circle. It was first performed as part of [[The Public Theater]]'s 2015 [[Under the Radar Festival]] in New York City.<ref>Moon, Grace. [http://velvetparkmedia.com/blogs/toshi-reagons-parable-0 "Toshi Reagon's Parable."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150502194228/http://velvetparkmedia.com/blogs/toshi-reagons-parable-0 |date=May 2, 2015 }} ''Velvetpark: Art, Thought and Culture''. January 14, 2015.</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/theater/show/311574/Under-the-Radar-2015-Octavia-E-Butler-s-Parable-of-the-Sower-The-Concert-Version/overview "Under the Radar 2015: Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower: The Concert Version"], ''The New York Times''. January 18, 2015.</ref>

''Kindred'' was adapted as a [[graphic novel]] by author Damien Duffy and artist {{ill|John Jennings (artist)|lt=John Jennings|qid=Q100138089|short=yes}}. The adaptation was published by Abrams ComicsArts on January 10, 2017.<ref>[http://www.abramsbooks.com/product/kindred-a-graphic-novel-adaptation_9781419709470/ "Kindred: a graphic novel adaptation"]. Retrieved March 11, 2017</ref> To visually differentiate the time periods in which Butler set the story, Jennings used muted colors for the present and vibrant ones for the past to demonstrate how the remnants and relevance of slavery are still with us.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/02/10/514397472/the-joy-and-fear-of-making-kindred-into-a-graphic-novel|title=The Joy (and Fear) of Making 'Kindred' Into a Graphic Novel|work=NPR|access-date=March 11, 2017|language=en}}</ref> The graphic novel adaption debuted as number one [[The New York Times Best Seller list|''New York Times'' hardcover graphic book bestseller]] on January 29, 2017.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/hardcover-graphic-books/|title=Hardcover Graphic Books – Best Sellers|newspaper= The New York Times|access-date=March 11, 2017}}</ref> After the success of ''Kindred'', Duffy and Jennings also adapted ''Parable of the Sower'' as a graphic novel.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hyperallergic.com/558536/a-graphic-novel-adapts-octavia-butlers-science-fiction-classic/|title=A Graphic Novel Adapts Octavia Butler's Science Fiction Classic|first1=Ayoola|last1=Solarin|date=April 24, 2020|website=Hyperallergic}}</ref> They also plan on releasing an adaptation of ''Parable of the Talents''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://damianduffy.net/depress-start/|title=Depress Start|date=February 16, 2020 }}</ref>

''Dawn'' is currently being adapted for television by producers [[Ava DuVernay]] and Charles D. King's Macro Ventures, alongside writer [[Victoria Mahoney]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://theportalist.com/octavia-butlers-dawn-to-be-adapted-for-tv |title=Octavia Butler's Dawn to Be Adapted for TV |website=The Portalist |date=August 9, 2017 }}</ref> There is no projected release date for the adaptation yet. A television series based on ''Wild Seed'' is also in the works for [[Amazon Prime Video]] with a screenplay co-written by [[Nnedi Okorafor]] and [[Wanuri Kahiu]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/27/amazon-wild-seed/|title=Amazon is developing a show based on Octavia Butler's 'Wild Seed'|first=Anthony|last=Ha|date=March 27, 2019}}</ref>

In 2021, [[FX (TV channel)|FX]] ordered an eight-episode miniseries, ''[[Kindred (miniseries)|Kindred]]'', based on Butler's book of the same name.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-03-08|title=FX Nabs Adaptation of Octavia E. Butler's 'Kindred'|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/fx-adapting-octavia-e-butlers-kindred|access-date=2021-03-09|website=The Hollywood Reporter|language=en}}</ref>  The show was developed by [[Branden Jacobs-Jenkins]] and premiered on December 13, 2022.

== Awards and honors ==
* 1980: Creative Arts Award, L.A. YWCA.<ref name="OffSite" />
* 1984: [[Hugo Award for Best Short Story]] – "[[Speech Sounds]]"<ref name="SFAwards" />
* 1984: [[Nebula Award for Best Novelette]] – "Bloodchild"<ref name="SFAwards" />
* 1985: [[Locus Award for Best Novelette]] – "Bloodchild"<ref name="OffSite">[http://octaviabutler.org/bio/ "Octavia E. Butler-About."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181023105442/http://octaviabutler.org/bio/ |date=October 23, 2018 }} [http://octaviabutler.org Octavia E. Butler Official Website.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003165050/http://octaviabutler.org/ |date=October 3, 2018 }}</ref>
* 1985: [[Hugo Award for Best Novelette]] – "Bloodchild"<ref name="SFAwards" />
* 1985: ''Science Fiction Chronicle'' Award for Best Novelette – "Bloodchild"<ref>[http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/SfcWinsByYear.html "''Science Fiction Chronicle'' Reader Awards Winners by Year"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004233923/http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/SfcWinsByYear.html |date=October 4, 2013 }}, ''The Locus Index to SF Awards''. 2010–2011.</ref>
* 1988: ''Science Fiction Chronicle'' Award for Best Novelette – "The Evening and the Morning and the Night"<ref name="HoldenShawltime" />
* 1995: [[John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation]] [[MacArthur Fellows Program|"Genius" Grant]]<ref name="HoldenShawltime" />
* 1995: ''Bloodchild'', a [[The New York Times Book Review|''New York Times'' Notable Book]]
* 1997: [[Honorary degree|Honorary Degree]] in Humane Letters, from [[Kenyon College]]
* 1998: [[James Tiptree Jr. Award]] Honor List– ''Parable of the Talents''<ref>{{cite web |title=1998 James Tiptree, Jr. Award|url=https://tiptree.org/award/1998-james-tiptree-jr-award |website=James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award|date=April 13, 2017 }}</ref>
* 1999: ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' Bestseller – ''Parable of the Talents''<ref>{{Cite web   |date=1999-04-18 |title=Author & Participant Bios |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-apr-18-bk-28784-story.html |access-date=2022-03-30 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref>
* 1999: [[Nebula Award for Best Novel]] – ''Parable of the Talents''<ref name="SFAwards" />
* 2001: [[Arthur C. Clarke Award]] Shortlist – ''Parable of the Talents''<ref>{{cite web |title=Award Shortlists |url=https://www.clarkeaward.com/award-winners/shortlists/ |website=Arthur C. Clarke Award |date=April 21, 2011 |access-date=November 12, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181104224623/https://www.clarkeaward.com/award-winners/shortlists/ |archive-date=November 4, 2018 }}</ref>
* 2000: Lifetime Achievement Award in Writing from the [[PEN American Center]]<ref name="HoldenShawltime" />
* 2005: [[Langston Hughes Medal]] of [[City College of New York|The City College]]<ref name="HoldenShawltime">"Octavia E. Butler Biographical Timeline", in Rebecca J. Holden and Nisi Shawl (eds), ''Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler'', Aqueduct Press, 2013. {{ISBN|978-1-61976-037-0}}</ref>
* 2010: Inducted by the [[EMP Museum#Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame|Science Fiction Hall of Fame]]<ref name="sfhof2010" />
* 2012: [[Nebula Award|Solstice Award]].<ref>[http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/butler_octavia "Butler, Octavia"], in John Clute, David Langford, Peter Nicholls and Graham Sleight (eds), ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'', London: Gollancz. April 3, 2015.</ref>
* 2018: The [[International Astronomical Union]] named a mountain on [[Charon (moon)|Charon]] (a moon of [[Pluto]]) Butler Mons to honor the author, after a public suggestion period and nomination by [[NASA]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.space.com/40961-octavia-butler-google-doodle.html |title=Google Doodle Honors Science Fiction Author Octavia E. Butler |last=Malik |first=Tariq |date=June 22, 2018 |website=Space.com |access-date=June 22, 2018}}</ref>
* 2018: Google featured her in a [[Google Doodle]] in the United States on June 22, 2018, which would have been Butler's 71st birthday.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://doodles.google/doodle/octavia-e-butlers-71st-birthday/ |title=Octavia E. Butler's 71st Birthday |date=June 22, 2018}}</ref>
* 2019: Asteroid [[7052 Octaviabutler]], discovered by American [[astronomer]] [[Eleanor Helin]] at [[Palomar Observatory]] in 1988, was named in her memory.<ref name="jpldata" /> The official {{MoMP|7052|naming citation}} was published by the [[Minor Planet Center]] on August 27, 2019 ({{small|[[Minor Planet Circulars|M.P.C.]] 115893}}).<ref name="MPC-Circulars-Archive" />
* 2019: [[Los Angeles Public Library]] opened the Octavia Lab, a [[Hackerspace|do-it-yourself maker space]] and audiovisual space named in Butler's honor.<ref>Roe, Mike. [https://laist.com/2019/06/14/la_public_librarys_new_maker_spacestudio_lets_you_3d_print_shoot_on_a_green_screen_and_way_more.php "LA Public Library's New Maker Space/Studio Lets You 3D Print, Shoot On A Green Screen, And Way More"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190917054714/https://laist.com/2019/06/14/la_public_librarys_new_maker_spacestudio_lets_you_3d_print_shoot_on_a_green_screen_and_way_more.php |date=September 17, 2019 }}, ''[[LAist]]'', Los Angeles, 14 June 2019. Retrieved on 14 October 2019.</ref>
* 2021: Inducted into the [[National Women's Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.inquirer.com/news/womens-half-fame-michelle-obama-20210308.html |title=Michelle Obama, Mia Hamm chosen for Women's Hall of Fame |date=March 8, 2021}}</ref>
[[File:PIA24483-MarsPerseveranceRover-OctaviaEButler-LandingSite-20210305.jpg|thumb|right|300px|<div align="center">Mars ''[[Perseverance (rover)|Perseverance]]'' rover – [[Octavia E. Butler Landing]] in [[Jezero (crater)|Jezero Crater]]</div>]]
*2021: [[NASA]] named the [[Mars landing]] site of the [[Perseverance (rover)|''Perseverance'' rover]] the "[[Octavia E. Butler Landing]]" in her honor.<ref>[https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-perseverance-drives-on-mars-terrain-for-first-time NASA's Perseverance Drives on Mars' Terrain for First Time] NASA, 2021-03-05.</ref><ref name="NASA-20210305">{{cite news |author=<!--Not stated--> |title=Welcome to 'Octavia E. Butler Landing' |url=https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/25701/welcome-to-octavia-e-butler-landing/ |date=March 5, 2021 |work=[[NASA]] |access-date=March 5, 2021 }}</ref>
*2022: Awarded the first-ever [[Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association#Awards|Infinity Award]] by the [[Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association]], given to those who have died before they could be considered for a [[Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award|Grand Master]] award.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |last2= |first2= |last3= |first3= |last4= |first4= |last5= |first5= |title=Infinity Award |url=https://nebulas.sfwa.org/award/infinity-award/ |access-date=2024-11-02 |website=Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2023-04-27 |title=The Inaugural Infinity Award Honoree: Octavia E. Butler |url=https://www.sfwa.org/2023/04/27/the-inaugural-infinity-award-honoree-octavia-e-butler/ |access-date=2024-11-02 |website=SFWA |language=en-US}}</ref>
*2022: The school Butler attended for [[middle school]] changed its name to Octavia E. Butler Magnet.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://19thnews.org/2022/11/pasadena-school-octavia-butler-alma-mater/|title=Octavia Butler's middle school has been renamed in her honor|first=Nadra|last=Nittle|date=November 4, 2022|website=The 19th}}</ref>
*2023: In February 2023, a bookstore named Octavia's Bookshelf opened in [[Pasadena, California]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-01-03 |title=A new indie bookstore named for Octavia Butler is opening in the author's hometown. |url=https://lithub.com/a-new-indie-bookstore-named-for-octavia-butler-is-opening-in-the-authors-hometown/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230218005330/https://lithub.com/a-new-indie-bookstore-named-for-octavia-butler-is-opening-in-the-authors-hometown/ |archive-date=2023-02-18 |access-date=2023-02-18 |website=Literary Hub |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Memorial scholarships ==
In 2006, the [[Carl Brandon Society]] established the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship in Butler's memory, to enable writers of color to attend the annual Clarion West Writers Workshop and [[Clarion Workshop|Clarion Writers' Workshop]], descendants of the original Clarion Science Fiction Writers' Workshop in [[Clarion, Pennsylvania]], where Butler got her start. The first scholarships were awarded in 2007.<ref name="Scholarship">{{cite web|url=http://carlbrandon.org/butler-scholarship/|title=Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship|year=2015|website=carlbrandon.org|publisher=[[Carl Brandon Society]]|access-date=October 15, 2016}}</ref>

In March 2019, Butler's alma mater, [[Pasadena City College]], announced the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship for students enrolled in the Pathways program and committed to transfer to four-year institutions.<ref name="PCC Scholarship">{{cite web|url=https://pasadena.edu/foundation/about.php/finance-and-investment-meetings.php/|title=The Pasadena City College Foundation|year=2019|website=pasadena.edu|publisher=[[Pasadena City College]]|access-date=April 5, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190708005135/https://pasadena.edu/foundation/about.php/finance-and-investment-meetings.php/|archive-date=July 8, 2019}}</ref>

The memorial scholarships sponsored by the Carl Brandon Society and Pasadena City College help fulfill three of the [[Dream board|life goals]] Butler had handwritten in a notebook from 1988:<ref>{{cite web|website=Portalist|url=https://theportalist.com/octavia-butler-facts|title=15 Fascinating Facts About Octavia Butler|author=Cox, Carolyn|publisher=Open Road Media|date=24 February 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|website=Blavity|url=https://blavity.com/octavia-butler?category1=trending|author=Collins, Kiara | date=January 28, 2016|title=Octavia Butler's personal journal shows the author literally wrote her life into existence}}</ref>
<blockquote>"I will send poor black youngsters to Clarion or other writer's workshops

"I will help poor black youngsters broaden their horizons

"I will help poor black youngsters go to college"</blockquote>

== Works ==
A complete bibliography of Butler's work was compiled in 2008 by Calvin Ritch.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ritch |first1=Calvin |title=An Octavia E. Butler Bibliography (1976–2008) |journal=Utopian Studies |date=2008 |volume=19 |issue=3 |pages=485–516 |doi=10.5325/utopianstudies.19.3.0485 |jstor=20719922 |s2cid=150357898 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

=== Novels ===

''[[Patternist series|Patternist]]'' series (in chronological order):
# ''[[Wild Seed (Octavia Butler novel)|Wild Seed]]'' (Doubleday, 1980)
# ''[[Mind of My Mind]]'' (Doubleday, 1977)
# ''[[Clay's Ark]]'' (St. Martin's Press, 1984)
# ''[[Survivor (Octavia Butler novel)|Survivor]]'' (Doubleday, 1978)
# ''[[Patternmaster]]'' (Doubleday, 1976)
* [[Omnibus edition]] (excluding ''Survivor'' and ''A Necessary Being''): ''[[Seed to Harvest]]'' (Grand Central Publishing, 2007)

''Xenogenesis'', or ''[[Lilith's Brood]]'' series:
# ''[[Lilith's Brood#Dawn_(1987)|Dawn]]'' (Warner, 1987)
# ''[[Lilith's Brood#Adulthood_Rites_(1988)|Adulthood Rites]]'' (Warner, 1988)
# ''[[Lilith's Brood#Imago_(1989)|Imago]]'' (Warner, 1989)
* Omnibus editions:
** ''Xenogenesis'' (Guild America Books, 1989)<ref>{{cite book | url=https://smile.amazon.com/Xenogenesis-Octavia-Butler/dp/1568650337/ | isbn=978-1-56865-033-3 | title=Xenogenesis: Dawn / Adulthood Rites / Imago | date=January 1989 | publisher=Guild America }}</ref>
** ''Lilith's Brood'' (Warner, 2000)<ref>{{cite book | url=https://smile.amazon.com/Liliths-Brood-Octavia-Butler/dp/0446676101/ | isbn=978-0-446-67610-6 | title=Lilith's Brood | date=June 2000 | publisher=Grand Central }}</ref>

''Parable'', or ''Earthseed'' series:
# ''[[Parable of the Sower (novel)|Parable of the Sower]]'' (Four Walls, Eight Windows, 1993)<ref name=RollingStone/>{{efn|''Parable of the Sower'' is a sci-fi novel about California burning in 2024. The [[Eaton Fire]] in January 2025 at [[Altadena, California|Altadena]] is near Octavia Butler's hometown of Pasadena.<ref name=RollingStone/>}}
# ''[[Parable of the Talents (novel)|Parable of the Talents]]'' (Seven Stories Press, 1998)

Stand-alones:
* ''[[Kindred (novel)|Kindred]]'' (Doubleday, 1979)
* ''[[Fledgling (Butler novel)|Fledgling]]'' (Seven Stories Press, 2005)

=== Short stories ===

Collections:
* ''[[Bloodchild and Other Stories]]'' (Four Walls, Eight Windows, 1995; [[Seven Stories Press]], 2005), collection of 4 short stories (1 added in 2005), 3 novelettes (1 added in 2005) and 2 essays:
*: "Bloodchild" (novelette), "The evening and the morning and the night" (novelette), "Near of kin", "Speech sounds", "Crossover", "Positive obsession" (essay), "Furor scribendi" (essay), "Amnesty" (novelette, added in 2005), "The Book of Martha" (added in 2005)
* ''[[Unexpected Stories]]'' (2014), collection of 1 short story and 1 novelette:
*: "Childfinder", "A Necessary Being" (novelette)

=== Non-fiction ===

;Essays and speeches:
* "Lost Races of Science Fiction", ''Transmission'' (Summer 1980): pp.&nbsp;16–18
* "Birth of a Writer", ''[[Essence (magazine)|Essence]]'' 20 (May 1989): 74+. Reprinted as "Positive Obsession" in ''[[Bloodchild and Other Stories]]''
* "Free Libraries: Are They Becoming Extinct?", ''Omni'' 15.10 (August 1993): 4
* "Journeys", ''Journeys'' 30 (Oct 1995). Part of an edition from [[PEN/Faulkner Foundation]], a talk given by Butler at the [[PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction|PEN/Faulkner Awards for Fiction]] in [[Rockville, Maryland|Rockville, MD]] at Quill & Brush. Reprinted as "The Monophobic Response" (the title that Butler preferred), in ''Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora'', ed. Sheree R Thomas (New York: Aspect/Warner Books, 2000), pp.&nbsp;415–416.
* [http://web.mit.edu/m-i-t/articles/butler_talk_index.html "''Devil Girl from Mars'': Why I Write Science Fiction"], ''Media in Transition'' (MIT), February 19, 1998; Transcript October 4, 1998)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150219020855/http://exittheapple.com/a-few-rules-for-predicting-the-future/ "Brave New Worlds: A Few Rules for Predicting the Future"], ''Essence'' 31.1 (May 2000): 164+
* [https://legacy.npr.org/programs/specials/racism/010830.octaviabutleressay.html "A World without Racism": "NPR Essay - UN Racism Conference"], ''[[Weekend Edition|NPR Weekend Edition Saturday]]'' (September 1, 2001)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090814041146/http://www.oprah.com/article/omagazine/aha/rys_omag_200205_aha "Octavia Butler's Aha! Moment"], ''[[O, The Oprah Magazine]]'' 3.5 (May 2002): 79–80

=== Incomplete novels and projects ===
Several of Octavia's works were not completed:<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-08-10 |title=Now More than Ever, We Wish We Had These Lost Octavia Butler Novels |url=https://electricliterature.com/now-more-than-ever-we-wish-we-had-these-lost-octavia-butler-novels/ |access-date=2022-06-06 |website=Electric Literature |language=en-US}}</ref>
* "I Should Have Said..." (memoir, 1998)
* "Paraclete" (novel, 2001)
* "Spiritus" (novel, 2001)
* "Parable of the Trickster" (novel, 1990s-2000s)

===Unpublished/not-in-print stories and novels===
* "To the Victor" (Story, 1965, under pen name Karen Adams, winning submission for a competition at Pasadena City College)
* "Loss" (Story, 1967, 5th place in national ''[[Writer's Digest]]'' short story contest)
* ''Blindsight'' (Novel: 1978, started; 1981, first draft; 1984, second draft)

== See also ==
{{Portal|Literature|Science fiction}}
* [[Afrofuturism]]
* [[Black science fiction]]
* [[Feminist science fiction]]
* [[Women in speculative fiction]]
* [[Speculative fiction]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist |25em |refs=

<ref name=isfdb>{{ISFDB name |186}} (ISFDB). Retrieved April 12, 2013.</ref>

<ref name=SFAwards>[http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/NomLit21.html#728 "Butler, Octavia E."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514053320/http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/NomLit21.html |date=May 14, 2008 }}, ''The Locus Index to SF Awards: Index of Literary Nominees''. [[Locus Publications]]. Retrieved April 12, 2013.</ref>

<ref name=sfhof2010>{{cite web |url=http://www.empsfm.org/exhibitions/index.asp?categoryID=203 |title=Science Fiction Hall of Fame |access-date=2010-03-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100325043342/http://www.empsfm.org/exhibitions/index.asp?categoryID=203 |archive-date=March 25, 2010 |df=mdy-all }}. [Quote: "EMP|SFM is proud to announce the 2010 Hall of Fame inductees:&nbsp;..."]. Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (''empsfm.org''). Archived March 25, 2010. Retrieved March 19, 2013.</ref>

<ref name="jpldata">{{cite web
  |type       = 2019-09-09 last obs.
  |title      = JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 7052 Octaviabutler (1988 VQ2)
  |url        = https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2007052
  |publisher  = [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]]
  |access-date = 25 September 2019}}</ref>

<ref name="MPC-Circulars-Archive">{{cite web
  |title      = MPC/MPO/MPS Archive
  |work       = Minor Planet Center
  |url        = https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/ECS/MPCArchive/MPCArchive_TBL.html
  |access-date = 25 September 2019}}</ref>

<ref name=RollingStone>{{cite magazine |last=Jordan |first=Meagan |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/la-fires-octavia-butler-parable-of-sower-prediction-1235236717/ |title=Octavia Butler Wanted to Prevent Disaster in Los Angeles. Instead, She Predicted It: Many have called the science fiction author a prophet for her futuristic prediction on L.A. fires in her novel 'Parable of the Sower,' but her fans see a deeper meaning |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=January 15, 2025  |access-date=January 17, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250116220328/https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/la-fires-octavia-butler-parable-of-sower-prediction-1235236717/ |archive-date=January 16, 2025}}</ref>

}} <!-- end of reflist -->

== Further reading ==
{{Further reading cleanup|date=September 2025}}
=== Biographies ===
*{{Cite book |last=Morris |first=Susana M. |title=Positive obsession: the life and times of Octavia E. Butler |date=2025 |publisher=Amistad (HarperCollins)|isbn=978-0-06-321207-7 |location=New York, NY}}

===Biographical essays===
* "Butler, Octavia 1947–2006", in Jelena O. Krstovic (ed.), ''Black Literature Criticism: Classic and Emerging Authors since 1950'', 2nd edn. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2008. 244–258.
* "Octavia Butler", in  Henry Louis Gates Jr (ed.). ''The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, 2nd Edition.'' New York: W.W. Norton and Co, 2004.
* Becker, Jennifer. "Octavia Estelle Butler", Lauren Curtright (ed.), ''Voices From the Gaps'', University of Minnesota, August 21, 2004.
* Geyh, Paula, Fred G. Leebron and Andrew Levy. "Octavia Butler". ''Postmodern American Fiction: A Norton Anthology.'' New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1998: 554–555.
* Pfeiffer, John R. "Butler, Octavia Estelle (b. 1947)", in Richard Bleiler (ed.), ''Science Fiction Writers: Critical Studies of the Major Authors from the Early Nineteenth Century to the Present Day''. 2nd edn. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999. 147–158.
* Smalls, F. Romall, and Arnold Markoe (eds). "Octavia Estelle Butler". ''The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Volume 8''. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons/Gale, Cengage Learning, 2010: 65–66.

=== Scholarship ===
* Baccolini, Raffaella. "Gender and Genre in the Feminist Critical Dystopias of [[Katharine Burdekin]], [[Margaret Atwood]], and Octavia Butler", in Marleen S. Barr (ed.), ''Future Females, the Next Generation: New Voices and Velocities in Feminist Science Fiction Criticism'', New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000: 13–34.
* Black, M. F. (2017). [https://search.library.pdx.edu/permalink/01ALLIANCE_PSU/1f8858f/cdi_proquest_journals_1953255701 What good Is All This to Black People?: How Race, Gender, and Science Fiction Help Illuminate Complex Identieties within the Writings of Octavia Bulter.] ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.
* Bollinger, Laurel. "Placental Economy: Octavia Butler, [[Luce Irigaray]], And Speculative Subjectivity". ''Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory'' 18.4 (2007): 325–352. {{doi|10.1080/10436920701708044}}.
* Canavan, Gerry. ''Octavia E. Butler''. University of Illinois Press, 2016.
* [[Donna Haraway|Haraway, Donna]]. [[A Cyborg Manifesto|"A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century"]] and "The Biopolitics of Postmodern Bodies: Constitutions of Self in Immune System Discourse". ''Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature''. New York: Routledge, 1991: 149–181, 203–230.
* Holden, Rebecca J., "The High Costs of Cyborg Survival: Octavia Butler's ''Xenogenesis'' Trilogy". ''[[Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction]]'' 72 (1998): 49–56.
*Holden, Rebecca J., and Nisi Shawl (eds). ''Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia Butler''. Seattle: Aqueduct, 2013. {{ISBN|978-1-61976-037-0}}
* [[John Lennard|Lennard, John]]. ''Octavia Butler: Xenogenesis / Lilith's Brood''. Tirril: Humanities-Ebooks, 2007. {{ISBN|978-1-84760-036-3}}
* Lennard, John. "Of Organelles: The Strange Determination of Octavia Butler". ''Of Modern Dragons and Other Essays on Genre Fiction''. Tirril: Humanities-Ebooks, 2007: 163–190. {{ISBN|978-1-84760-038-7}}.
* Levecq, Christine, "Power and Repetition: Philosophies of (Literary) History in Octavia E. Butler's ''Kindred''". ''Contemporary Literature'' 41.3 (2000 Spring): 525–553. {{JSTOR|1208895}}. {{doi|10.2307/1208895}}.
* Luckhurst, Roger, {{"'}}Horror and Beauty in Rare Combination': The Miscegenate Fictions of Octavia Butler". ''Women: A Cultural Review'' 7.1 (1996): 28–38. {{doi|10.1080/09574049608578256}}.
* Melzer, Patricia, ''Alien Constructions: Science Fiction and Feminist Thought'' (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006). {{ISBN|978-0-292-71307-9}}.
* Omry, Keren, "A Cyborg Performance: Gender and Genre in Octavia Butler". ''Phoebe: Journal of Gender and Cultural Critiques''. 17.2 (2005 Fall): 45–60.
* Ramirez, Catherine S. "Cyborg Feminism: The Science Fiction of Octavia Butler and [[Gloria E. Anzaldúa|Gloria Anzaldua]]", in Mary Flanagan and Austin Booth (eds), ''Reload: Rethinking Women and Cyberculture'', Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002: 374–402.
* Ryan, Tim A. "You Shall See How a Slave Was Made a ''Woman'': The Development of the Contemporary Novel of Slavery, 1976–1987". ''Calls and Responses: The American Novel of Slavery since'' Gone with the Wind. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2008: 114–148.
* Schwab, Gabriele. "Ethnographies of the Future: Personhood, Agency and Power in Octavia Butler's ''Xenogenesis''", in William Maurer and Gabriele Schwab (eds), ''Accelerating Possession'', New York: Columbia University Press, 2006: 204–228.
* Shaw, Heather. "[http://www.strangehorizons.com/2000/20001218/butler.shtml Strange Bedfellows: Eugenics, Attraction, and Aversion in the Works of Octavia E. Butler] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060325005601/http://www.strangehorizons.com/2000/20001218/butler.shtml |date=March 25, 2006 }}". ''[[Strange Horizons]]''. December 18, 2000.
* Scott, Jonathan. "Octavia Butler and the Base for American Socialism". ''Socialism and Democracy'' 20.3 November 2006, 105–126. {{doi|10.1080/08854300600950269}}.
* Seewood, Andre. [http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/freeing-black-science-fiction-from-the-chains-of-race "Freeing (Black)Science Fiction From The Chains of Race"]. "Shadow and Act: On Cinema Of The African Diaspora", August 1, 2012. ''[[IndieWire|Indiewire.com]]''.
* [[Joan Slonczewski|Slonczewski, Joan]], [http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/books/butler1.html "Octavia Butler's ''Xenogenesis'' Trilogy: A Biologist's Response"].
* Stanley, Tarshia, ed., ''Approaches to Teaching the Works of Octavia E. Butler''. New York: Modern Language Association, 2019. {{ISBN|9781603294157}}
* Zaki, Hoda M. "Utopia, Dystopia, and Ideology in the Science Fiction of Octavia Butler". ''Science-Fiction Studies'' 17.2 (1990): 239–251. {{JSTOR|4239994}}.

=== Interviews ===
==== 1970s–1980s ====
* Veronica Mixon, "Futurist Woman: Octavia Butler." ''[[Essence (magazine)|Essence]]'', April 9, 1979, pp.&nbsp;12, 15.
* Jeffrey Elliot, "Interview with Octavia Butler", ''Thrust'' 12. Summer 1979, pp.&nbsp;19–22.
* "Future Forum", ''Future Life'' 17. 1980, p.&nbsp;60.
* Rosalie G. Harrison, "Sci-Fi Visions: An Interview with Octavia Butler", ''Equal Opportunity Forum Magazine'', February 8, 1980, pp.&nbsp;30–34.
* Wayne Warga, "Corn Chips Yield Grist for Her Mill", ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', January 30, 1981. Sec. 5: 15.
* Chico Norwood, "Science Fiction Writer Comes of Age", ''Los Angeles Sentinel'', April 16, 1981. A5, Al5.
* Carolyn S. Davidson, "The Science Fiction of Octavia Butler", ''SagaU'' 2.1. 1981, p.&nbsp;35.
* Bever-leigh Banfield, "Octavia Butler: A Wild Seed", ''Hip'' 5.9. 1981, pp.&nbsp;48 and following.
* "''Black Scholar''&nbsp;Interview with Octavia Butler: Black Women and the Science Fiction Genre." By Frances M. Beal.&nbsp;''[[The Black Scholar|Black Scholar]].'' 17.2. March–April 1986, pp.&nbsp;14–18. {{JSTOR|41067255}}.
* Charles Brown, "Octavia E. Butler", ''[[Locus (magazine)|Locus]]'' 21.10. October 1988.
* S. McHenry, "Otherworldly Vision", ''Essence'' 29.10. February 1989. p.&nbsp;80.
* Claudia Peck, "Interview: Octavia Butler", ''Skewed: The Magazine of Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror'' 1. pp.&nbsp;18–27.

==== 1990s ====
* Larry McCaffery and Jim McMenamin, "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler", in Larry McCaffery (ed.), ''Across the Wounded Galaxies: Interviews with Contemporary American Science Fiction Writers'', 1990. {{ISBN|978-0-252-06140-0}}, pp.&nbsp;54–70.
* Randall Kenan, "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler", ''Callaloo'' 14.2. 1991, pp.&nbsp;495–505. {{JSTOR|2931654}}. {{doi|10.2307/2931654}}.
* Lisa See, "''PW'' Interviews", ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'' 240. December 13, 1993, pp.&nbsp;50–51.
* H. Jerome Jackson, "Sci-Fi Tales from Octavia E. Butler", ''Crisis'' 101.3. April 1994, p.&nbsp;4.
* Jelani Cobb, "Interview with Octavia Butler", ''jelanicobb.com'', 1994. Reprinted in Conseula Francis (ed.), ''Conversations with Octavia Butler'' (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2010), pp.&nbsp;49–64.
* Stephen W. Potts, [http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/interviews/potts70interview.htm {{"'}}We Keep on Playing the Same Record': A Conversation with Octavia E. Butler"], ''Science Fiction Studies'' 23.3. November 1996, pp.&nbsp;331–338. {{JSTOR|4240538}}.
* Tasha Kelly and Jan Berrien Berends, "Octavia E. Butler Mouths Off!" ''Terra Incognita'', Winter 1996.
* Charles H. Rowell, "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler", ''Callaloo''&nbsp;20.1. 1997, pp.&nbsp;47–66. {{JSTOR|3299291}}.
* Steven Piziks, "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler", ''Marion Zimmer Bradley Fantasy Magazine'', Fall 1997.
* Joan Fry, [http://www.joanfry.com/congratulations-youve-just-won-295000/ {{"'}}Congratulations! You've Just Won $290,000': An Interview with Octavia E. Butler"], ''[[Poets & Writers]]'' 25.2. March 1, 1997, p.&nbsp;58.
* Mike McGonigal, "[http://www.indexmagazine.com/interviews/octavia_butler.shtml Octavia Butler]", ''Index Magazine''. 1998.

==== 2000s ====
* [[Charlie Rose]], "A Conversation with Octavia Butler", ''Charlie Rose''. 2000. [Two videos on YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66pu-Miq4tk Part 1] and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1W9CNwl2e8 Part 2].]
* "[http://www.locusmag.com/2000/Issues/06/Butler.html Interview with Octavia Butler]", ''Locus'' 44. June 2000, p.&nbsp;6.
* Stephen Barnes, "Interview", ''American Visions'' 15.5. October–November 2000, pp.&nbsp;24–28.
* Robyn McGee, "Octavia Butler: Soul Sister of Science Fiction", ''[[Fireweed (periodical)|Fireweed]]'' 73. Fall 2001, pp.&nbsp;60 and following.
* Marilyn Mehafly and AnaLouise Keating, {{"'}}Radio Imagination': Octavia Butler on the Politics of Narrative Embodiment", ''MELUS'' 26.1. 2001, pp.&nbsp;45–76. {{JSTOR|3185496}}. {{doi|10.2307/3185496}}.
* [[Scott Simon]], "[https://www.npr.org/programs/specials/racism/010830.octaviabutler.html Essay on Racism: A Science-Fiction Writer Shares Her View of Intolerance]", ''Weekend Edition Saturday''. September 1, 2001 [Audio].
* "[https://web.archive.org/web/20141109232657/http://www.wab.org/if-all-of-rochester-read-the-same-book-2003-2/if-all-2003-a-conversation-with-octavia-butler/ A Conversation with Octavia Butler"], ''Writers & Books''. 2003.
* Darrell Schweitzer, "Watching the Story Happen", ''Interzone'' 186 (February 2003): 21. Reprinted as "Octavia Butler" in ''Speaking of the Fantastic II: Interviews with the Masters of Science Fiction and Fantasy'', 2004. {{ISBN|978-1-4344-4229-1}}, pp.&nbsp;21–36.
* Joshunda Sanders, "[http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/ac04/obutler.html Interview with Octavia Butler]", i''n Motion Magazine'', 2004.
* Earni Young, "Return of Kindred Spirits: An Anniversary for Octavia E. Butler Is a Time for Reflection and Rejoicing for Fans of Speculative Fiction", ''Black Issues Book Review'' 6.1. January–February 2004, pp.&nbsp;30–33.
* Allison Keyes, [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1745712 "Octavia Butler's ''Kindred'' Turns 25"], [[NPR]]: ''[[The Tavis Smiley Show]]''. March 4, 2004.
* John C. Snider, "[http://www.scifidimensions.com/Jun04/octaviaebutler.htm Interview: Octavia Butler] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220191628/http://www.scifidimensions.com/Jun04/octaviaebutler.htm |date=December 20, 2014 }}", ''SciFiDimensions''. June 2004.
* [[Ira Flatow]], "[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1964371 The Interplay of Science and Science Fiction]", [[NPR]]: ''[[Talk of the Nation]]'', June 18, 2004. [Panel discussion; audio].
* [[Juan Gonzalez (journalist)|Juan Gonzalez]] and [[Amy Goodman]], [https://www.democracynow.org/2005/11/11/science_fiction_writer_octavia_butler_on "Science Fiction Writer Octavia Butler on Race, Global Warming, and Religion"], ''[[Democracy Now!]]'' November 11, 2005.
* "[https://web.archive.org/web/20091124024942/http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/01/63925.html Interview with Octavia Butler]". ''[[The Independent]]'', January 2006.
* "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060211093913/http://www.addictedtorace.com/?p=29 Interview with Octavia Butler]". ''Addicted to Race'', February 6, 2006.

== External links ==
{{Spoken Wikipedia|En-Octavia_E._Butler-article.ogg|date=2015-06-15}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20181003165050/http://octaviabutler.org/ Octavia E. Butler Official Website (archived)] 
* [https://www.octaviabutler.com/ Octavia E. Butler Official Website] 
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090425135013/http://www.sfwa.org/members/Butler/index.html Octavia E. Butler home page] at [[Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association|Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America]]
* {{ISFDB name|186}}
* {{IMDb name|1175129}}
* [http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/butler_octavia Octavia E. Butler] at  ''[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]]''
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgeyVE3NHJM "Octavia Butler at a Panel Discussion at UCLA in 2002"]. YouTube
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW9hVkrO9OU "Women Writing Sci-Fi: From ''Brave New Worlds''{{-"}}]. YouTube. Clip from 1993 TV documentary ''Brave New Worlds: The Science Fiction Phenomenon'' featuring [[Robert Silverberg]], [[Karen Joy Fowler]], and Octavia E. Butler discussing science fiction in the 1970s
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20170311074614/http://www.huntington.org/octaviabutler/ Octavia Butler profile and photos] at the [[Huntington Library]].
* [https://theportalist.com/octavia-butler-quotes-to-live-by "10 Octavia Butler Quotes to Live By"]
* [https://theportalist.com/15-fascinating-facts-about-octavia-butler "15 Fascinating Facts About Octavia Butler"]
* [https://www.npr.org/2021/02/16/968498810/how-octavia-butlers-sci-fi-dystopia-became-a-constant-in-a-mans-evolution "How Octavia Butler's Sci-Fi Dystopia Became a Constant in a Man's Evolution"] by Ramtin Arablouei, ''[[Throughline]]'', February 18, 2021 (1h08m podcast/radio broadcast)

{{National Women's Hall of Fame}}
{{Octavia Butler}}
{{Hugo Award Best Novelette}}
{{Hugo Award Best Short Story 1981–2000}}
{{Nebula Award Best Novel}}
{{Nebula Award Best Novelette}}
{{Ignyte Award for Best Comics Team}}
{{Authority control}}

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