Octavia Butler and Her Talent

  Does the name Octavia Butler sound familiar to you? Yes, maybe, sort of? When I first decided to share the amazing story of Butler, she sounded so familiar, but I couldn't put quite put my finger on why. Naturally this made me want to write about her even more. You won't' believe how interesting this woman is and what she's gone through to make her such a good author.

    Okay maybe I should start with the fact that she's an African American writer, mainly writing science fiction. A lot of her stories bring attention to prejudice against African Americans, global warming, women's rights, and political disparity and there's a good chance you read one of her books in class, as they're taught in schools and universities. 

    Okay lets start on her background, you know, her birthday, where she grew up, her mom and dad, and so on. Octavia Butler was born June 22, in 1947 in Pasadena, California, that's within Los Angeles. Unfortunately, she did pass away February 24th, 20006. She was only 58 years old when she fell outside and hit her head on the cobbled walkway. Butler grew up in a poor city. it wasn't legally segregated, but you don't have to be a genius to figure out that it was treated as such. Her dad worked as a shoe shiner before he passed away when Butler was 7. Since that, Butler's grandmother had helped her mom raise her. She grew up as an only child, occasionally going to work with her mom to help clean houses. They would have to enter through the back of houses, which is just many of the acts of racism she grew up around. 

    Ironically, Butler had dyslexia, making it hard to read in class, which made Octavia feel so lonely, and she was already shy, so that wasn't a good mix. Her dyslexia and boredom with the class books led to the teachers believing she was just lazy. They were so wrong. Butler begged her mom to get her a library so she could actually read something interesting. Despite what her teachers thought, she loved reading so much, I'm not even sure how often she would go to the library, but I know it was often. At around the age 10, she started writing stories, like a lot. Teachers thought she was just copying what she read in other places. At 13 she made her first submission, a teacher saw her talent and encouraged her to submit to a science fiction magazine. Good for her.

    Octavia Butler graduated from Pasadena City with an associate's degree. After that she moved on to classes at the University of California, taking all sorts of classes. Anthropology, psychology, physics, biology, and geology, and apparently even more than that? It makes sense she wrote in the science fiction area. (1) "She loved learning and recalled, 'You're always realizing there is so much out there that you don't know." She was always thinking and finding out. Butler is an extremely talented and intelligent writer. 

    Remember how I said her teachers were wrong about thinking Butler was lazy? Well, in her adult life she would wake up at 2 in the morning just to start writing stories. After that she would go through the day doing various odd jobs, a potato chip inspector, telemarketing, dishwasher, warehouse worker, remember this was before we had so much machinery, so honestly the possibilities were endless. This isn't very relevant to her books or writing career, but I just think it's fun. She was determined, to say the least.

Kindred

     Okay you're probably at the point now of, "Why am I reading this", "Why is she even relevant" Don't worry, we're at the part where I talk about her books now. Like every author has, she's gotten multiple rejections when trying to publish stories. Her first published story was called Patternmaster. She actually wrote 12 more books afterwards, the most popular one which I'll be talking more in depth about is called Kindred.

    Reading up about Kindred makes me actually want to read it, hopefully you get a little interested as well. The book focuses on a young black woman named, "Dana" from 1976. She gets pulled back in time to a plantation in Maryland, and the whole goal is to protect an ancestor of hers. Shockingly, the ancestor is a white man, son of a slave owner. The idea of a black woman in 1815 trying to protect a white man is just baffling to me and made me even more interested. 

Octavia tried to portray slavery in a realistic manner but decided to not depict it as violent as it was. That's seen in a lot of books, which is sad thinking about how violent it's depicted already. Butler decided to not go extreme so more people could tune in the book. 

    This isn't a super formal review, because it's not from a science-y website, but what was said about the book is actually well worded. (2) "The novel is a potent metaphor for the modern African American experience and the American experience in general. We may be lulled into the feeling that we have advanced, that we have made progress as a society. But at any moment, we may be yanked back into the past and reminded of where we came from." This was a quote from "Rick Riordan". There are constant examples in society today of racism that's still prevalent that may not be so apparent to the naked eye.

 Unfortunately, the book did not win any awards, but the book had a graphic novel made from it that won the Eisner Award. If you have a hard time reading stories, then try the graphic novels, it's a shorter read and has visuals. Overall, this book was fun to learn about, and Octavia Butler herself too. Hopefully you want to read Kindred as much as I do right now.

Citations

(1) “Biography: Octavia Estelle Butler.” National Women’s History Museum, www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/octavia-estelle-butler. Accessed 25 Sept. 2026. 

(2)“Kindred.” Goodreads, Goodreads, www.goodreads.com/book/show/60931.Kindred. Accessed 25 Sept. 2026.

(3)“Kindred.” Octavia E. Butler, www.octaviabutler.com/kindred/. Accessed 25 Sept. 2026.