In 2000 I made my way up the walkway of a house outside of Seattle with my husband, author Steven Barnes, to see his longtime friend Octavia Butler. We were greeted by the sound of Motown music ...

Growing up, Butler was shy and dyslexic, spending many of her hours at the local library. When she began writing at the age of seven, she made up stories about horses despite knowing nothing about the ...

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily. As with many people who have recently re-read Butler’s work—and a new literary ...

Her father was a shoeshine man who died when she was still a child. Her mother was a maid who often had to bring her daughter along on cleaning jobs. And she was hampered by dyslexia, was sheltered by ...

On July 20, 2024, Lauren Olamina turned 15. Or, at least, she did in Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower. The 1993 dystopian classic recounts the life and times of a Black girl who shares the ...