Overview

• Susana M. Morris’s Positive Obsession is a concise new biography that reframes Octavia Butler’s celebrated science-fiction as politically and environmentally engaged work.
• Morris’s deep dive into the Huntington Library archives reveals fresh personal details about Butler’s shyness, dyslexia and obsessive writing habits.
• The biography argues that Butler’s dystopian narratives were intended as a ‘love offering’ to equip readers with community-centered survival strategies rather than nihilistic predictions.
• Morris positions Butler as an unexpected midwife of contemporary Black feminism, spotlighting her focus on mutuality and centering Black women and girls.
• Early reviews in BookPage and The New Yorker praise the book’s readability and predict it will draw new readers to Butler’s stories.