Octavia Estelle Butler was born in 1947 in Pasadena, California. She attended Pasadena City College, California State University, and the University of California at Los Angeles. An award-winning science fiction writer, she has published eleven novels (the five-volume Patternist series, the Xenogenesis trilogy [also issued as Lilith’s Brood], Parable of the Sower, and its sequel, Parable of the Talents). Butler has also published a book of stories, Bloodchild and Other Stories. Her work draws on African American history, future studies, and explorations of alien nature and psychology. She has received the Nebula and Hugo awards for her work. She won a MacArthur Fellowship in 1995 and in 2000 received a lifetime achievement award in writing from PEN.

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