Octavia E. Butler was born in Pasadena in 1947 and lived in Pasadena and LA for most of her life before moving to Washington state where she died in 2006. She graduated from John Muir High School in l 965 and then worked during the day and attended classes at Pasadena City College at night, earning her Associate's Degree in 1968. Her first income as a writer was from a short story contest she won as a Freshman at PCC. Butler would later go on to publish many novels and win many awards including a MacArthur "Genius" Grant, but her success came after many years of grueling work in obscurity.