From the mid-1970s until 2012 I lived overseas in Europe, the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and New Zealand, and this kept me out of touch with much of what was happening in my homeland of the United States. Besides the presidencies of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, I also missed observing the stellar careers of luminaries of the science fiction and fantasy field such as Octavia E. Butler. I only discovered Butler’s works when I returned to live once again in the States. The first work I read by her, in an anthology I happened to pick up, was the amazing Hugo Award-winning short story “Speech Sounds.”

In fact, Butler was the first Black woman to make a career out of writing science fiction. When she began writing and submitting in the 1970s, the field was mainly dominated by white male writers. As Morris brings out, though, in this fascinating book, Butler not only had talent but persistence; the positive obsession of the title was an all-but overwhelming desire to write, a focus that began early, when she was still a child, and continued throughout her life. Her dedication paid off as she found publishers for her novels and stories, won multiple awards, and became the first science fiction writer to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, also known as a MacArthur Genius Grant.

This book is partially a biography and partially an analysis of Butler’s writings. I found the biographical elements most absorbing. I could have done with less comprehensive summaries of the plots of Butler’s novels. I would have preferred just a few teasers; I’d rather get the details by reading the novels themselves. Otherwise, though, the story of Butler’s obsession with writing deeply resonates with me. I can’t say I can relate to everything she went through; after all, I’m not a woman and I’m not Black. But I felt great empathy as I read of her struggles with loneliness and her fascination with writing. I share her positive obsession with writing. I too experienced (and still experience) the discouragement of rejections while attempting to establish myself as a published author. I concur with her realization that “the most important thing I do every day is to write, to work on my novels and stories. They are my love and my work, my fortune, my life…” And now that my kids have grown and gone, as an empty-nester, I sympathize with her heart cry: “My pen and my paper, they comfort me – at least a little. They allow me to scream into utter silence. They focus my thoughts, they permit me to act when no other action is possible.”

The stark difference between us as artists, of course, is that Butler became a famous award-winning writer, while I am as yet unknown. However, this story of Butler’s life brings out that if you are a dedicated writer, whether you are popular and fiscally successful or not, you don’t wait for some sort of ethereal inspiration; you sit down and write every day. Your waking thoughts are consumed with writing. It is your writing that gives your life purpose and focus.

I am truly thankful that I have had a chance to get to know Butler, at least somewhat, through this book. She spent her last years in Seattle, and I might have had a chance to meet her after I moved back to the area, but her life was tragically cut short when she fell outside her home and died in 2006 at the age of fifty-eight. At least she left us the legacy of her words, which are still in print and continue to be popular to this day. I highly recommend this biography of an exceptionally dedicated and talented writer.