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Octavia Butler
Science fiction writer & first sci-fi author to win a MacArthur Fellowship
The visionary who placed Black women at the centre of the future — and made speculative fiction confront power, survival and kinship.
The rise
Growing up dyslexic and shy in Pasadena, Butler began writing sci-fi stories as a child. After years of rejection and factory jobs, she published Patternmaster in 1976 and built the Patternist series, carving space for African-American voices in a genre that had largely ignored them.