SOURCE: "An Interview with Octavia Butler," in Callaloo, Vol. 14, No. 2, Spring, 1991, pp. 495-504.

In the following interview, Butler discusses her career, her writing style, and her inspiration.

Octavia E. Butler is something of a phenomenon. Since 1976 she has published nine novels, more than any other black woman in North America, and even more amazing: She writes science fiction. Having won all the major S[cience] F[iction] awards, (a Nebula and two Hugos), she has gained a substantial cult following, as well as critical acclaim, particularly for her 1979 novel. Kindred, reissued in 1988 in the prestigious Beacon Black Women Writers Series. Kindred is the tale of Dana Franklin, a black woman from an interracial marriage in L.A. in 1976, who is mysteriously plucked back in time on a number of occasions to 1824 Maryland and to a moral dilemma involving her white ancestor. A book often compared to Metamorphosis for...