On display in the exhibition was one of the pages of motivational notes she frequently wrote to help herself stay focused on her goals. “In fact,” she once said, “I had five more years of rejection slips and horrible little jobs ahead of me before I sold another word.” But the road to success was long and slow. Following Clarion, she took odd jobs to support herself, writing in the early morning hours before work.
In the early 1970s, at a workshop for minority writers, she met the science fiction author Harlan Ellison, who introduced her to the Clarion Science Fiction Workshop, where Butler learned to hone her craft among other like-minded writers it was then that she sold her first story. “She was convinced she could write a better story than the one unfolding on the screen,” Russell said.īutler enrolled in every creative writing course she could find, including classes at Pasadena City College. The exhibition featured samples of her earliest stories.īut it was a 1954 science fiction film called Devil Girl from Mars that inspired Butler to take on science fiction. An only child, she discovered writing very early because it suited her shy nature. Her father died when she was quite young. Butler was born June 22, 1947, to a maid and a shoeshine man. It also highlighted specific themes that repeatedly commanded her attention. The exhibition followed a roughly chronological thread and included approximately 100 items that revealed the writer’s early years and influences. 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. “Tired of stories featuring white, male heroes, she developed an alternative narrative from a very personal point of view.”īutler, a Pasadena, Calif., native, told the New York Times in a 2000 interview: “When I began writing science fiction, when I began reading, heck, I wasn’t in any of this stuff I read. “She was a pioneer, a master storyteller who brought her voice-the voice of a woman of color-to science fiction,” said Natalie Russell, assistant curator of literary manuscripts at The Huntington and curator of the exhibition.
#CANVAS PHOTO PRINT NEAR ME ARCHIVE#
Butler’s literary archive resides at The Huntington. Butler (1947-2006), the first science fiction writer to receive a prestigious MacArthur “genius” award and the first African American woman to win widespread recognition writing in that genre.
Butler: Telling My Stories" examined the life and work of celebrated author Octavia E. The Huntington presents the first major exhibition on the life of award-winning author Octavia E.
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