Octavia E. Butler

(1947 - 2006)

Octavia E. Butler won Hugo and Nebula Awards for her works of science fiction, which include the novels Parable of the Sower and Kindred. She had attended a Los Angeles workshop for young African American and Latino writers, where she was mentored by veteran science fiction writer Harlan Ellison. “When I began writing science fiction, when I began reading, heck, I wasn’t in any of this stuff I read,” Butler told the New York Times in 2000. “I wrote myself in, since I’m me and I’m here and I’m writing.”