from Unexpected Stories ( 2014)

story’s original publication date: 1970(unpublished)

Summary: A telepath searches for young, promising students against the wishes of the overpowering organization

Grade: B

This short story was bought by Harlan Ellison in 1970 for his anthology The Last Dangerous Visions but the anthology was never published; this is the first writing Butler ever sold.

In my article in The Root, I note how Butler had to push back against very experienced writers who wanted her to “write  black.”

In this snippet, Octavia Butler is letting off steam in one of the many drafts of her original afterword to “Childfinder,” a story that has been recently released in Unexpected Stories.

Even though she understood that her mentors were doing their best to help her sell— and obviously missing the emotional havoc wrought by their suggestions— Butler stood firm, and was eventually proven correct in her decision to follow her own writerly vision.