A magnificent cultural biography that charts the life of one of our greatest writers, situating her alongside the key historical and social moments that shaped her work.

As the first Black woman to consistently write and publish in the field of science fiction, Octavia Butler was a trailblazer. With her deft pen, she created stories speculating the devolution of the American empire, using it as an apt metaphor for the best and worst of humanityour innovation and ingenuity, our naked greed and ambition, our propensity for violence and hierarchy. Her fiction charts the rise and fall of the American projectthe nations transformation from a provincial backwater to a capitalist juggernautmade possible by chattel slaveryto a bloated imperialist superpower on the verge of implosion.

In this outstanding work, Susana M. Morris places Butlers story firmly within the cultural, social, and historical context that shaped her life: the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power, womens liberation, queer rights, Reaganomics. Morris reveals how these influences profoundly impacted Butlers personal and intellectual trajectory and shaped the ideas central to her writing. Her cautionary tales warn us about succumbing to fascism, gender-based violence, and climate chaos while offering alternate paradigms to religion, family, and understanding our relationships to ourselves. Butler envisioned futures with Black women at the center, raising our awareness of how those who are often dismissed have the knowledge to shift the landscape of our world. But her characters are no magical martyrs, they are tough, flawed, intelligent, and complicated, a reflection of Butlers stories.

Morris explains what drove Butler: She wrote because she felt she must. Who was I anyway? Why should anyone pay attention to what I had to say? Did I have anything to say? I was writing science fiction and fantasy, for Gods sake. At that time nearly all professional science-fiction writers were white men. As much as I loved science fiction and fantasy, what was I doing? Well, whatever it was, I couldnt stop. Positive obsession is about not being able to stop just because youre afraid and full of doubts. Positive obsession is dangerous. Its about not being able to stop at all.