Themes in Literature/Isolation and Community/Octavia E. Butler

Born in Pasadena in 1947, Octavia E. Butler was a prolific female black American science fiction author who heavily featured afro-futurism and feminism in her writing. She was raised by her mother and grandmother, after her father’s death, and took on jobs that would allow her enough free time to write. Despite many rejections early on in her career, her literature has received some of the most prestigious literary awards, including the prestigious Hugo Award for her novelette Bloodchild and her short story “Speech Sounds”, an acknowledgement for best in science fiction of the year preceding the award. She also received Nebula Awards, which also recognizes exceptional work in the science fiction genre, for her aforementioned novelette, Bloodchild and her novel, Parable of The Talents. Butler was also the first writer to obtain a MacArthur Fellowship. A complete list of her awards and literature can be found on her website. Butler died in February 2006. It was only near the end of her life when her stories—focused as they were on feminism, global warming, racial and other social injustice—became more widely known and loved, as present society’s focus tilted towards these concerns. Today, her books, poems and essays are taught in schools.