Octavia Estelle Butler was born June 22, 1947 in Pasadena, California. Her father died when she was still a baby, and her mother raised her on her own, working as a maid. She attended Pasadena City College, where she received an A.A. in 1968. In 1969, she went to Cal State - L.A, and also took a class from Harlan Ellison as part of the Screen Writers' Guild Open Door Program.

She was one of the most thoughtful and imaginative science fiction writers, and one of the few black writers in the science-fiction field. Her first story, ''Crossover'', appeared in the 1971 Clarion anthology, but she only had one other sale in the next five years. After working at a number of blue-collar jobs to support herself, she began her notable career with two in the ''Patternist'' SF series: Patternmaster (1976), and Mind of My Mind (1977). After standalones Survivor (1978) and Kindred (1979), she returned to the series with Wild Seed (1980). Clay's Ark (1984) was another standalone. ''Xenogenesis'' books Dawn (1987), Adulthood Rites (1988), and Imago (1989) came next. Much of Butler's shorter fiction was collected in Bloodchild and Other Stories (1995). She won the 1984 Hugo for short story ''Speech Sounds'', and 1985 Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards for novelette ''Bloodchild''. In 1995, she received a $295,000 MacArthur Foundation ''Genius'' award – the first SF writer to do so.

Butler sold her first three novels without anyone citing race as a problem. But with the wrinting of her next novel, "Kindred," she was told that it should be modified. And although this has been her most enduring and popular work, it was not initially heralded until Beacon Press republished it years later. Then it became her most successful book in terms of sales. 

Bulter moved to Seattle in November 1999 and lived a fairly reclusive life. She described herself as "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." She was a lesbian, and themes of both racial and sexual ambiguity are apparent throughout her work.

She died outside of her home on February 24, 2006, at the age of 58. Some news accounts have stated that she died of head injuries after falling and striking her head on her walkway, while others report that she apparently suffered a stroke.