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| Octavia E. Butler 1947-2006 |
The reader's guide at the end of the paperback version of Kindred contains a good biography of Octavia Butler. For those of you who read a different edition or who listened to the audiobook, I will summarize.
Octavia Estelle Butler was born on June 22, 1947, in Pasadena, California. Her father was a shoeshiner, who died when she was very young. Her mother, Octavia Sr., worked as a maid and was often forced to take young Octavia with her to work as she couldn't afford childcare. Butler has said that her early observations of the relationship between her mother and her mother's white employers forms much of the inspiration for Kindred. Octavia was painfully shy and uncomfortable around other people, and left to her own devices, became an avid reader even though she suffered from dyslexia. In her teen years, she discovered science fiction, which at that time was aimed at a mostly teenaged male audience. She was inspired by a bad science fiction movie to think, "I could write better than that." She received an associate degree from Pasadena City College and then went on to Cal State Los Angeles, but she dropped out, preferring to take writing classes through UCLA extension. It was at a couple of different sci-fi writers' workshops, though, that she met her mentors, Harlan Ellison and Samuel R. Delany, both giants of science fiction.
Interesting trivia: In last month's selection, the fictitious character, Bernadette Fox, moved from Los Angeles to Seattle and was the recipient of a MacArthur fellowship grant. In real life, Octavia Butler moved from Los Angeles to Seattle and was the recipient of a MacArthur fellowship grant.
A list of Butler's works can be found at her official web site, as can a short bio and list of her awards.
On YouTube, I found an interview with Octavia Butler, conducted by Charlie Rose. In grand YouTube fashion, it has been split into two parts.
Part 1
Part 2
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