Gerry Canavan.
Octavia E. Butler.
University of Illinois Press. 2016
“I began writing about power because I had so little,”
Octavia E. Butler once said.
Butler’s life as an African American woman—an
alien in American society and among science fiction writers—informed
powerful works that earned her an ardent readership
and acclaim from inside and outside science fiction.
Drawing on Butler’s personal papers, Gerry Canavan tracks the false starts, abandoned drafts, tireless rewrites, and real-life obstacles that fed Butler’s frustrations and launched her triumphs. He approaches Butler first and foremost as a science fiction writer working within, responding to, and reacting against the genre’s particular canon. The result is an illuminating look at how an essential SF figure shaped her themes, unconventional ideas, and unflagging creative urge into brilliant works of fiction.