Biography

Ocativa E. Butler was born in Pasadena, California. Her ethnicity is African American. She grew up with her mother who was a maid, her father was a shoe shiner. Her father passed away when she was seven years old. She was raised by her mother and her grandmother (maternal side), who were very strict to her baptist morals. Octavia was raised during the time of racial segregation and faced much adversity and overcame it. Butler grew up to be extremely shy and was diagnosed with dyslexia, which didn’t help her case on being social. Butler was shy and had a case of dyslexia caused her to be an easy target for bullies, which led her to be tormented her entire childhood. This meant she spent most of her time in The Pasadena Public Library where she found her love for reading, writing, and daydreaming. Butler grew a passion for science fiction for where it took her to different places in literature. She would write and draw all of her thoughts in her infamous pink notebook which contained her talented work. She studied at John Muir High School (graduated in 1965),  then studied at a community college (Pasadena City College), finally attending a four year university, California State University (Los Angeles). In this period The Black Power Movement, the movement where African Americans took pride in their ethnicity and furthered their want/need to end segregation, which was a struggle she faced but came over it with the strong will that she has. At the same time as Butler was studying she took part in local writer workshops where she would focus most of her time on her passion, which was science fiction. However, before any of this time could be relevant, Octavia sought many struggles by witnessing the distress her family was put through at a young age. Her mother held her job as a maid, where she would get treated extremely poorly by the home owners who were white. With her dad who passed at such a young age, it left for some financial struggle and less time/memories with her father (which would lead to less parental structure). Although Butler didn’t let these extreme struggles defeat her, she took it with a grain of salt and used it as motivation to further herself academically and with great humility. To continue, at the young age of ten, Butler asked her mother for a Remington typewriter and got one. This took her writing career to the next level as it meant that Octavia could document her work in places other than a notebook. This meant that her work could be shared, published and passed around to share much easier. This typewriter led her to writing some of her novels. Unfortunately, at the age of thirteen, Butler soon doubted herself as her Aunt Hazel mentioned to her, “Honey negros can’t be writers.'' This led to a significant disbelief in herself. Thankfully, Octavia preserved and kept writing. In junior high school, Butler asked her science teacher (Mr. William Ptaff) to type up her manuscript to be published into a science fiction magazine. Graciously, he did so. With the motivation that was given to Butler by the discrimination she faced it only pushed her to go father. While Attending Pasadena City College (PCC), she wrote a short story as a freshman in college and won. She earned her first income which was fifteen dollars. Her work got criticized by her classmates, who were similar to her racially. However, she stood silent and courageous. She did not let these words get to her. Her true rise to success was rough as her mother was not fond of the idea of her becoming a writer. Octavia’s mother wanted her to pursue a more stable, realistic job as a secretary, but Octavia didn’t listen. Butler wanted a flexible work life, she focused her work to be the way she grew up reading and writing, which was white, male based, so it was very different from what others would imagine how she’d interpret her writing. Her determination paid off as within the next five years she wrote, “Patternmaster,’ ‘Mind of My Mind,’ and ‘Survivor.” Other novels came about as more time went on, some of her most famous work is “Parable of The Sorrow and Kindred.” Her career took off astronomically after these novels were published. She was awarded The MacAuthor award which was a prize of 295,000. The passing of her mother moved Octavia to move to lake Forest Park, Washington. In her later years, Octavia was faced with writer's block and depression due to her high blood pressure medicine and made it difficult to continue to write. In 2005, at Chicago State University, Octavia was placed into The International Black Writers Hall of Fame. A year later in 2006, Octavia passed outside her home in Washington from a fatal stroke. Even though it cut her life short, Octavia made such an impact on the world by showing her determination and the odds that were placed against her didn’t cut her short. Overall, Octavia E Butler was a wonderful author and person who did remarkable things.