Her brand of science fiction -a label she often tried to duck, identifying herself on her business card simply as “writer” -serves as a lens for considering contemporary issues: sexual violence, gun violence, climate change, gender stereotypes, the problems of late-stage capitalism, the plight of undocumented immigrants, and, not least, racism. I wrote myself in, since I’m me and I’m here and I’m writing. The only black people you found were occasional characters or characters who were so feeble-witted that they couldn’t manage anything, anyway. When I began writing science fiction, when I began reading, heck, I wasn’t in any of this stuff I read. As she remarked in an interview with The New York Times : She held herself accountable by writing out demanding schedules to accompany her lofty, documented goals.Īnd though she wearied of the constant invitations to serve on literary panels devoted to science fiction writers of color, at which she’d be asked the same questions she’d answered dozens of times before, she was resolute about providing opportunities for young black writers … and readers, who found reflections of themselves in her characters. She developed a lifelong habit of cheering herself on with motivational notes, writing them in her journals, on lined notebook paper, in day planners and on repurposed pages of an old wall calendar. There I could be a magic horse, a Martian, a telepath….There I could be anywhere but here, any time but now, with any people but these. I hid out in a big pink notebook-one that would hold a whole ream of paper. Boys in particular seemed to assume that I had done this growing deliberately and that I should be ridiculed for it as often as possible. I also thought that everyone would notice these faults if I drew attention to myself. I believed I was ugly and stupid, clumsy, and socially hopeless. As she wrote in an autobiographical essay, “Positive Obsession”: Identifying as a writer helped her move beyond her crippling shyness and dyslexia. Butler took up writing at a young age.Īt 11, she was churning out tales about horses and romance.Īt 12, she saw Devil Girl from Mars, and figured (correctly) she could tell a better story than that, using 2 fingers to peck out stories on the Remington typewriter her mother bought at her request.Īt 13, she found a copy of The Writer magazine abandoned on a bus seat, and learned that it was possible to submit her work for publication.Īfter a decade’s worth of rejection slips, she sold her first two stories, thanks in part to her association with the Clarion Science Fiction Writing Workshop, which she became involved with on the recommendation of her mentor, science fiction writer Harlan Ellison.
I was able to do anything and there were no walls to hem you in and there was no human condition that you were stopped from examining. I was attracted to science fiction because it was so wide open. Handwritten notes on the inside cover of one of Octavia E.
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