A groundbreaking masterpiece, the now-classic anti-racist novel Kindred (1979) by African American science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler uniquely combines historical fiction and fantasy, and is widely taught in American schools and colleges.
Octavia E. Butler was born in 1947 in Pasadena, California.
Orphaned by her father, she was raised by her mother. She was dyslexic and introverted as a child. She began writing stories at the age of ten, determined to become a writer.
Octavia E. Butler studied under the renowned science fiction writer Harlan Ellison, who was among the first to recognize her talent and encouraged her to continue writing.
In 1976, her first novel Patternmaster was published, launching the Patternist series. Kindred (1979), her only major work not strictly classified as science fiction, blends historical fiction with speculative elements in a distinctive way and remains widely read and taught in universities.
During the 1980s she published the Xenogenesis trilogy, followed in the 1990s by the dystopian Earthseed series, which later saw renewed popularity and even reached bestseller lists decades later due to its perceived prophetic themes.
Octavia E. Butler was a pioneering African American woman in a genre that was long dominated by men, and her work explored themes such as gender, race, power, and social hierarchy. She critically examined systems of dominance, including racism, sexism, nationalism, and class inequality.
She received numerous awards, including the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and in 1995 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship—the first science fiction writer to receive it.
In her final years she struggled with health issues and completed only one more novel, Fledgling (2005). She died in 2006 at the age of 58 in her home in Seattle.
In 1976 Dana has just turned twenty-six and she and her husband Kevin move to their new home in Los Angeles. Suddenly, while unpacking their books, Dana loses consciousness. When she comes to, she finds herself at the edges of a dense forest and immediately realizes that a small child is drowning in the river next to her. Without second thought, she dives into the water and saves it, but when she comes out, a man is waiting for her on the bank, pointing his gun at her. And while her life is in danger, she finds herself back in her apartment, soaked to the bone. She has just experienced the scariest experience of her life, but little did she know at the time that this would happen again and again…
A groundbreaking masterpiece, African-American science fiction author Octavia E. Butler’s now-classic, anti-racist novel Kindred (1979) uniquely combines historical fiction and fantasy, and is taught in American schools and colleges.