Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006) was the renowned author of numerous groundbreaking novels including Kindred, Wild Seed, and Parable of the Sower. Recipient of the Locus, Hugo and Nebula awards, and a PEN Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work, in 1995 she became the first science-fiction writer to win the MacArthur Fellowship. An Afrofuturist pioneer, her dystopian novels explore myriad themes of Black injustice, women's rights, global warming, and human survival, and her work is taught in over two hundred colleges and universities nationwide.