Octavia Butler

Born 1947 · Joined the Ancestors 2006

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First sci-fi writer to receive MacArthur Genius Fellowship

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Parable of the Sower predicted many aspects of modern American crisis

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Kindred is taught in college classrooms nationwide

Octavia Butler was the first Black woman to gain widespread recognition in science fiction, using the genre to explore race, gender, and power with unmatched daring. A shy child in Pasadena, she found in sci-fi a space to imagine worlds unconstrained by reality.

Kindred (1979) sent a modern Black woman to the antebellum South. The Parable series imagined near-future America consumed by climate change and authoritarianism with prophetic accuracy.

In 1995, she became the first sci-fi writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship.