Octavia Butler, author of "Kindred," "Patternmaster," "Parable of the Sower" and eight other science fiction novels, died on Friday afternoon after falling on the street and hitting her head near her Seattle home, according to the Associated Press.
Butler, 58, was known as the first black woman to gain success in the science fiction genre. Her books, with plots about time travel and young female vampires, also covered issues like slavery, the environment and religion; and the Washington Post called her "one of the finest voices in fiction period. A master storyteller who casts an unflinching eye on racism, sexism, poverty and ignorance and lets the reader see the terror and beauty of human nature."
Five years ago, Butler wrote: "I'm a 53-year-old writer who can remember being a 10-year-old writer and who expects someday to be an 80-year-old writer. I'm also comfortably asocial -- a hermit in the middle of Seattle -- a pessimist if I'm not careful, a feminist, a Black, a former Baptist, an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive."
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