The Mother of AfroFuturism: Octavia Butler
Born in Pasadena, California in June of 1947, Octavia Estelle Butler, was raised by her mother, a maid, and her father, who shined shoes for a living. When her father passed away when Octavia was seven years old, her grandmother helped to raise her. According to one source, Butler grew up with a painful shyness that made making friends difficult, and dyslexia, which made schoolwork even more difficult. She was often the target of teasing from bullies, but she found a haven in the public library, where she pored over Science Fiction magazines like Amazing Stories and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction . She determined that she would write her own stories, so she begged her mother for a typewriter for the purpose ( 1 ). photo of Butler from tansyrr.com Recipient of two Hugo Awards, two Nebula Awards, and the first Science Fiction writer to have received a MacArthur Fellowship, Octavia Butler was the first African American woman to have traversed the largely white male-do...