Following a devastating nuclear war, Lilith Iyapo awakens after 250 years of stasis to find herself surrounded by a group  of aliens called the Oankali. These highly evolved beings want to trade DNA by breeding with humans so that each species’ genes  can diversify and fortify the other. The only alternative they offer is  sterilization of the entire human race. Should humanity take the leap into  the biological unknown, or hold on to its identity and perish? Questions like this haunt  Octavia Butler’s "Dawn," the first in her trilogy "Lilith’s Brood." A visionary storyteller who  upended science fiction, Butler built stunning worlds  throughout her work– and explored dilemmas that keep  us awake at night. Born in 1947, Butler grew up shy and introverted in  Pasadena, California. She dreamt up stories from an early age, and was soon scribbling these  scenarios on paper. At twelve, she begged her mother  for a typewriter after enduring a campy science fiction film called "Devil Girl From Mars." Unimpressed with what she saw, Butler knew she could tell a better story. Much science fiction features  white male heroes who blast aliens or become  saviors of brown people. Butler wanted to write diverse characters for diverse audiences. She brought nuance and depth to the  representation of their experiences. For Butler, imagination was not only for planting  the seeds of science fiction– but also a strategy for surviving an  unjust world on one’s own terms. Her work often takes troubling  features of the world such as discrimination on the basis of  race, gender, class, or ability, and invites the reader to contemplate  them in new contexts. One of her most beloved novels, the "Parable of the Sower," follows this pattern. It tells the story of Lauren Oya Olamina as she makes her way through a near-future California, ruined by corporate greed, inequality, and environmental destruction. As she struggles with hyperempathy, or a condition in the novel that  causes her to feel others’ pain, and less often, their pleasure. Lauren embarks on a quest with a group  of refugees to find a place to thrive. There, they seek to live in accordance  with Lauren’s found religion, Earthseed, which is based on the principle that humans must adapt to an  ever-changing world. Lauren’s quest had roots  in a real life event– California Prop 187, which attempted to deny undocumented immigrants fundamental human rights, before it was deemed unconstitutional. Butler frequently incorporated  contemporary news into her writing. In her 1998 sequel to "The Parable of the  Sower," "Parable of the Talents," she wrote of a presidential candidate who controls Americans with virtual  reality and “shock collars.” His slogan? “Make America great again.” While people have noted her prescience, Butler was also interested in  re-examining history. For instance, "Kindred" tells the story of a woman who is repeatedly pulled back in time to the Maryland plantation  of her ancestors. Early on, she learns that her mission  is to save the life of the white man who will rape her great grandmother. If she doesn’t save him,  she herself will cease to exist. This grim dilemma forces Dana to  confront the ongoing trauma of slavery and sexual violence  against Black women. With her stories of women  founding new societies, time travelers overcoming  historical strife, and interspecies bonding, Butler had a profound influence on  the growing popularity of Afrofuturism. That’s a cultural movement where Black writers and artists who are  inspired by the past, present and future, produce works that incorporate magic,  history, technology and much more. As Lauren comes to learn in  "Parable of the Sower," "All that you touch you Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth is Change.”