I think that there comes a time when you just have to do that, when things have to start to come together for you or you don’t really become an educated person.” “That’s when I began to teach myself as opposed to just showing up at school. “You’re always realizing there is so much out there that you don’t know, 3” she observed. 2” Butler did take classes in writing, but also studied anthropology, psychology, physics, biology, and geology, among other subjects. I get books on tape, and also courses on tape. Which is one of the reasons I read so slowly-I hear every word and that way I can remember it. After high school, Butler went on to graduate from Pasadena City College with an Associates of Arts degree in 1968.īutler continued writing, and also continued with school, going on to study at California State University in Los Angeles and the University of California, Los Angeles, and found her learning style, as she explained to Charlie Rose: “I learn better through listening than through reading. From then on the library was my second home.” Butler’s mother only had three years of education, but she learned to read, and worked hard as a housekeeper to make sure that her daughter learned to read and went to school. She immediately took me to the library and got me a card. I remember the surprised look on her face. Butler described how she got her first library card: “When I was six and was finally given books to read in school, I found them incredibly dull they were Dick and Jane books.
1”ĭespite her dyslexia, she was a bookworm, reading everything that she could find. But when I wrote I wasn’t, which was probably a good reason for my continuing to write as a young kid. I usually had very few friends, and I was lonely. At as young as four years old, she was making up stories for herself and as she recalls in an interview with the literary journal Callaloo, “By the time I was ten I was writing, and I carried a big notebook around so that whenever I had some time I could write in it. That story would be the first of many she submitted for publication, and would signify the moment Butler knew that she wanted to-and could-write for a living however, Butler was writing stories for herself long before then.Ī shy loner, Butler found solace and company in words. When she was thirteen, one teacher did recognize her talents as a writer and encouraged her to submit a short story to a science fiction magazine-he even typed it out for her. When given the time to write in school, Butler would weave tales that were so out-of-the-box her teacher assumed she had copied them from a published story. In fact, she struggled in school, where teachers interpreted her slow reading and inability to finish assignments in the allotted time as an unwillingness to do the work. In 1995 Butler and her work were recognized with a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, aka, “the Genius Grant.”īut Octavia never considered herself to be very bright, much less a genius. In addition to winning the top prizes in the science fiction genre, the Nebula and the Hugo Awards, she was honored with a lifetime achievement award from PEN Center West and the Langston Hughes Medal from the City College of New York. Many in the literary world regard her novel, Kindred, as one of the modern classics and it is often read and discussed in high school and college classrooms. The award-winning author of thirteen books, Butler was a pioneer in the science fiction genre, breaking through barriers as one of the few African Americans and the first woman to be a successful full-time writer in an arena of white males. Octavia Butler spent most of her 58 years of life crafting stories. She died after a fall outside of her home in 2006. The Pen Center West awarded her with a lifetime achievement award. In 1995, Butler was honored with a MacArthur fellowship, and in 2005, she was the recipient of the City College of New York’s Langston Hughes Medal. She was a pioneer in the science fiction genre, winning both the Nebula and the Hugo Awards. Octavia Butler was an award-winning author of thirteen books. Advocacy Back Toolkit for Parents, Educators and Students.Toolkit for Parents, Educators and Students.
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