Octavia Butler Biography

Octavia Butler was the science fiction author who wrote the novels Parable of the Talents, Kindred, and Fledgling. She is considered one of the founders of Afrofuturism — fantasy and science fiction with black people.

Octavia Butler grew up in Pasadena, California and started writing science fiction stories when she was a young girl.

She began getting published in the 1970s, then won a Hugo award for her short story, “Speech Sounds” in 1983.

A year later, Butler won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for her novella “Bloodchild.”

Her novels include Parable of the Sower, Clay’s Ark and Lilith’s Brood. Her novel Parable of the Talents won the Nebula Award in 2000.

In 1995 she was recognized with a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship — more commonly known as a “genius grant” — for her writing skills and career.

She died outside her home after a fall in 2006, at the age of 58.