Octavia was born on June 22,1947, in Pasadena, California. Pasadena was a poor city during her early years, and whilst not being legally segregated, it was segregated by action. Butler’s father, who worked shining shoes, died when she was only seven years old. She was raised by her mother, who worked as a maid, and her grandmother. Butler’s mother worked like a dog to ensure that Octavia had more opportunities than she did. Butler went to Pasadena public schools, where she was often recognized as the shy and lonely student. To not give her any benefit, she had a very hard time with dyslexia. She was a slow reader, and her teachers were unwilling to assist her. She found the books given to her at school boring and uninteresting. Fast forward a few years, Butler graduates high school and continues to college, getting an Associate’s Degree from Pasadena City College in 1968. Although acquiring a degree, she continued to learn. After her degree, Butler took classes at California State University in Los Angeles and at the University of California at Los Angeles. During her time between these two universities, she took a writing class. But, untraditionally, she also took classes like anthropology, physics, and biology, as well as a variety of other classes.  

Butler first gained her passion to write after seeing a 1954 B-Movie, Devil Girl from Mars, at a young age, and thinking that the movie was horrible and that she could write a greater story than it. Soon after,  Butler not only saw words as a combination of letters, but also as friends. By the time she reached middle school, she had a notebook full of little stories that she wrote any moment she could. At 13, one of Butler’s teachers persuaded her to submit a story to a science fiction magazine. This was the first major stone added to the step that solidified her want to write. Butler continued to write little stories throughout high school, but it wouldn't be till college that she would receive her next big break.  Whilst taking her extra classes at one of the universities, she stumbled upon a science fiction author within one of her classes: Harlan Ellison. Ellison became not only a mentor to Butler, but also a vital friend. Ellison encouraged Butler to attend the Clarion Science Fiction Writer’s Workshop. Butler did just that. Butler, being the stellar writer she was, sold two of her stories before the workshop concluded. Unfortunately, these would be the only two stories sold for a long while. But Butler did not give in. She would awake at two in the morning every morning, just so she would have enough time to write. Later on, within these same days, she would work a few bleak jobs: telemarketer, potato chip inspector, dishwasher, and warehouse worker. After realizing her stories weren’t working, she had to flip the script. So she started on her first novel: Patternmaster. Luckily Patternmaster was an eyecatcher, and the manuscript was purchased and then published in 1976. After this major achievement, she would go on to write 12 more very successful novels, and solidify her title as an author.

Octavia Butler was not only an author, but an activist for African American rights and representation, as well as the first published Black female science fiction writer. Early on, Butler found that the Science fiction genre was predominantly controlled by white male authors. The traditional stories lacked representation of her and other African Americans' lives, especially as a black woman in the U.S. Butler began to take her novels and base them on the environment she was familiar with. Often telling tales of power, identity, and inequality within her writing. Through this exploration of a different kind of science fiction, she made her own subgenre. This subgenre being Afrofuturism. Octavia took this idea and ran with it. Through her work, she created  alternate universes  where black people are the hero, and where the characters' experiences are in centerstage. By doing this, she allowed the rest of the African American community to look towards a goal, and begin to build it. Today, even after Butler’s passing, her vision and work continues to inspire generations to explore the prejudice related to race, and identity.

Furthermore, Butler’s works were also critically acclaimed. She won the Nebula Award, which recognizes the best science fiction or fantasy works of the previous year, with not just one book, but two: Bloodchild and Parable of the Talents. But Butler didn’t just get Nebula awards, she also obtained multiple Hugo awards, one for Bloodchild and another for Speech Sounds. Her books weren’t the only things to get awards. In 1995, she was awarded a MacArthur Grant. This was a huge achievement, and she is the only science fiction author to receive this award. But wait there's more,  Butler also acquired a PEN Lifetime Achievement award, and the City College of New York’s Langston Hughes Medal in 2005.