New York Times bestseller Ibi Zoboi's groundbreaking biography of Octavia E. Butler received six starred reviews and is now available in paperback.



National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi illuminates the young life of the visionary storyteller Octavia E. Butler in poems and prose. Born into the Space Race, the Red Scare, and the dawning Civil Rights Movement, Butler experienced an American childhood that shaped her into the groundbreaking science-fiction storyteller whose novels continue to challenge and delight readers fifteen years after her death. An acclaimed and bestselling author Zoboi's work is familiar on both bestseller and awards lists. Her novel in verse Punching the Air was an instant bestseller and was honored with a Walter Award and the LA Times Book Prize. Zoboi has a unique connection with Butler. They share a birthday and she studied with Butler at Clarion Workshop near the end of Butler's life. Features Butler's own words and photos of documents from her childhood. Zoboi spent a week with Butler's papers at the Huntington Library in Los Angeles. Octavia Butler is more relevant than ever. Butler's work is ascendent in the popular imagination. Adaptations are in the works, including an FX series based on Kindred slated for 2022. Her most famous novels have been adapted into bestselling graphic novels.