About the Author[]
- Genres: Alternate History, Dystopia, Post-Apocalyptic, Genetic Engineering
- Writing Style:
- Books: Octavia E. Butler
Biography[]
Octavia Estelle Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006) was an American science fiction author. A multiple recipient of both the Hugo and Nebula awards, she became in 1995 the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship.
Butler was born in Pasadena, California. After her father died, she was raised by her widowed mother. Extremely shy as a child, Octavia found an outlet at the library reading fantasy, and in writing. She began writing science fiction as a teenager. She attended community college during the Black Power movement, and while participating in a local writer's workshop was encouraged to attend the Clarion Workshop, which focused on science fiction.
She soon sold her first stories and by the late 1970s had become sufficiently successful as an author that she was able to pursue writing full-time. Her books and short stories drew the favorable attention of the public and awards judges. She also taught writer's workshops, and eventually relocated to Washington state. Butler died of a stroke at the age of 58.[1]
Series[]
Patternist series[]
- Genres: Alternative History, Dystopian
- Theme: "racial and gender-based animosity, the ethical implications of biological engineering, the question of what it means to be human, ethical and unethical uses of power, and how the assumption of power changes people"[2]
- Series list:
- Patternmaster (Doubleday, 1976)
- Mind of My Mind (Doubleday, 1977)
- Survivor (Doubleday, 1978)
- Wild Seed (Doubleday, 1980)
- Clay's Ark (St. Martin's Press, 1984)
- Seed to Harvest (Grand Central Publishing 2007; omnibus excluding Survivor)
Xenogenesis trilogy[]
- aka: Lilith's Brood:Xenogenesis trilogy
- Genres: Post-Apocalyptic, Genetic Engineering
- Theme:
- Series list:
- Dawn (Warner, 1987)
- Adulthood Rites (Warner, 1988)
- Imago (Warner, 1989)
- Xenogenesis (Guild America Books, 1989) (an omnibus edition of Dawn, Adulthood Rites, & Imago)
- Lilith's Brood (Warner, 2000) (another omnibus edition of Dawn, Adulthood Rites, & Imago)
Parable series[]
- aka: Earthseed series
- Genres: Post-Apocalyptic
- Theme:
- Series list:
- Parable of the Sower (Four Walls, Eight Windows, 1993)
- Parable of the Talents (Seven Stories Press, 1998)
Other Works[]
Standalone novels[]
- Kindred (Doubleday, 1979)
- Fledgling (Seven Stories Press, 2005)
Short story collections[]
- Bloodchild and Other Stories (Four Walls, Eight Windows, 1995; Seven Stories Press, 2005 including "Amnesty" and "The Book of Martha")
- Unexpected Stories (2014, including "A Necessary Being" and "Childfinder")