Before passing in Lake Forest Park, Octavia Butler was the 'most eloquent and elegant' voice of a movement

December 29, 2025 / 9:01 am

caption: The KUOW Book Club is reading "Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler" by Susana M. Morris in December 2025.

The KUOW Book Club read "Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler" by Susana M. Morris this month. I'm your reading guide Katie Campbell. Morris joined me on Zoom recently to talk about her biography of a literary legend. Listen to our full conversation by hitting the play button above.

he moment Susana M. Morris first came upon a novel by Octavia Butler could have been the setup for one of the great science fiction author's stories.

Morris was 15, wandering through her public library's science fiction section. This was Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in the mid-90s — her options were limited. This was also the era of shows like "Candid Camera" and "Punk'd." So when she saw a copy of "Parable of the Sower" with the cover facing out, as if it was there just for her, Morris thought she was being pranked.

"When I saw the book and saw that it had been written by a Black woman... and there was a Black woman on the cover, I thought, 'This is not real. Y'all are setting me up. Where's the camera?'" Morris told me.

Morris suddenly saw herself reflected in a genre dominated by white men and white male characters. She'd found one of Butler's most celebrated novels, one that centered a young Black woman like Morris.

"Some librarian said, 'I'm going to not just file this here, but I'm going to face the cover out so that someone can see it.' Those are choices that librarians make," Morris said. "Maybe it was an afterthought or maybe it was a very intentional kind of situation. But I thank them regardless, because it really changed the trajectory of my life."

Since then, Morris has become an educator, a scholar of Afrofuturism, and an author herself. And in her latest work, "Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler," she paid homage to the woman who sent her down that path.

It was not easy being an architect, an astronaut, an engineer, and an innovator. Octavia did not grow up in the world we have now, flawed though it may be. But she did help positively shape the world that we are now inheriting — by centering Black women as heroines, not as sidekicks or vehicles for others' growth; by crafting cautionary tales that charge us all with creating the future we want to see; and by being an example of what persistence matched with brilliance can do. Octavia's writing implores us that it is up to us to reimagine the world we want to live in and do the work to create it. And in that way Octavia's genius changed the world. POSITIVE OBSESSION, PAGE 213

Butler was key to the development of Afrofuturism, which Morris described as a movement that frames African diasporic cultural practices as central to the continuation of human society. Butler's stories centered Black women in particular, and asked difficult questions about humanity's hierarchal tendencies. Though she wrote fiction, Butler also tried to warn readers about threats she saw on the horizon: climate change, the rise of white nationalism and fascism, the breakdown of social safety nets.

When the KUOW Book Club read "Fledgling," the last novel Butler published before she died suddenly in her Lake Forest Park home, I spoke to her longtime friend and fellow author Nisi Shawl. I was surprised when Shawl said this of Butler: "I honestly don't know if she would have been able to keep writing, because she was already doing her utmost to put an optimistic spin on what she wrote 40 years ago."

I asked Morris what she thought of that.

"I can see that being the case. ... She may have been so frustrated, because she wasn't the only person [warning us]," Morris said. "She was probably the most eloquent and elegant voice saying it, but she was part of a chorus. She was leading a chorus of folks, saying, 'These are things we need to pay attention to. There are ways in which our society is not working.'"

If you, like me, are sad to think of a universe in which Butler no longer felt like her writing, her positive obsession, was worth it anymore, be heartened by this from Morris' epilogue:

Luckily for us, Octavia's works are not simply doomsday tales bent on scaring us into submission. positive obsession, page 215

Submission, after all, would be antithetical to Butler's entire life, her legacy.

Morris went on:

Octavia's hope that we would read her work and then be incited to study our world and our (mis)shaping of it and be spurred into action is a noble hope. Noble and necessary. Though her works often depict a future marred by violence and injustice, these stories were not nihilistic predictions but a sort of love offering for readers to receive and be changed by. And, to that end, what a gift they are. Octavia's messages presuppose that we are smart enough and justice-oriented enough to be introspective and to make life better for generations to come. This is the ultimate gesture of hope for humanity. POSITIVE OBSESSION, PAGE 218

Morris' biography of Butler is a continuation of that gesture of hope.

"Positive Obsession" is both a lovingly detailed account of Butler's life and a sort of refresher course on her work, the research that went into it, and the lasting legacy she left. Butler's strength of imagination and will paved the way for literary greats like Rivers Solomon and N. K. Jemisin. The world was robbed when Butler died at just 58 years old, but the literary landscape she sowed continues to thrive. Morris' work, both as an author and an educator who teaches Butler's work, is a testament to that.

Let's not forget, too, the small role the Pacific Northwest played in Butler's story, albeit later in her life:

Moving to Seattle gave Octavia an opportunity to live in an area that she found breathtaking, where she could explore state parks, hike, and commune with nature. There was also a vibrant science fiction community in the Pacific Northwest. She still kept copious journals and filled them with musings about politics, pop culture, her natural surroundings, and, of course, her writing. But gone were the days when she filled pages of her diary with yearnings for a different kind of life. These days Octavia was mostly settled , if not at peace, with the direction her personal life had taken. She was not incessantly mourning that she was missing out on something. Now in her fifties, hers was a quiet life centered on her work and dotted with conversations with a wide range of acquaintances, colleagues, students, mentees, fans, and family; activities with her small, tight-knit circle of friends; and restorative sojourns into the beautiful terrain of the Pacific Northwest. POSITIVE OBSESSION, PAGE 183

In answer to the classic "if you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive" question, I often choose Butler. But after reading this passage, I would have preferred to join her on one of those sojourns. I like to think of her wandering the Olympic Peninsula, at ease and in love with her surroundings. I wonder, too, how she might have felt to see the place where she made her home become unaffordable to so many, to see how the tech sector changed Seattle, and how the Covid pandemic would permanently change the world.

Though Nisi Shawl and Morris certainly know her better, I like to think Butler would have kept writing into old age. Perhaps she would have written the "Fledgling" sequel or continued the "Parable" series. Or perhaps she would have written something entirely new, something poignant about book bans or LGBTQ rights or AI.

Can you imagine?

I think she could've.

Listen to my conversation with Susana M. Morris by hitting the play button above.

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Katie Campbell
Online Editor/Reporter

Katie joined KUOW's online team as an editor and reporter in 2024, after serving three years as senior producer of the local Morning Edition program. She has covered a variety of local topics, including the Seattle City Council, elections, and breaking news. She also brings readers some levity with a weekly news quiz.
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