Octavia Butler is an American fiction writer. Octavia blended her science fiction novels with African american spiritualism. Octavia was born in California and had studied at several universities and started her writing career in the 1970's. Octavia's first novel was Patternmaster in 1976. As a young child, she lost her father at an early age and her mother had raised her, her mom worked as a maid to support the family. Octavia was dyslexis, she was also known for her impressive height and was often shy, the learning disorder didn't stop her and at the age of 10, she started writing her own stories and decided that this would be her life's work. She got her associate's degree from Pasadena City College. Octavia also got many of her inspirations from her mother's work. "If my mother hadn't put up with all those humiliations, I wouldn't have eaten very well or lived very comfortably. So I wanted to write a novel that would make others feel the history: the pain and fear that black people have had to live through in order to endure." Her work had also received many rewards, one such as the 1984 Best Short Story Hugo Award for "Speech Sounds" and also her novelette "Bloodchild" won a Nebula Award and later a Hugo as well.