Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler was an award-winning, genre-defining author. Among an array of Hugo and Nebula awards, she was also the first science fiction writer to receive a prestigious MacArthur fellowship.

Octavia expanded what science fiction is and could be. Her work blended historical consciousness, feminist aesthetic, and marginalized perspectives. She upended a genre that had been (and can still be) predominantly young, white, and male-centered.

Her work often grapples with themes of power, intimacy, hybridity, survival, complicity, and environmentalism. She wrote about disenfranchised protagonists. She used characters familiar with violence and faced with the need to compromise to explore our flawed humanity.

Despite the dark themes, Octavia's stories reminds us that we can remain hopeful in the face of the worst oppression. Survival is courage, and one individual can create critical change.