Octavia Butler

Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006) was an American science fiction writer, and probably the best-known (or in a lot of cases, the only known) African-American in that field. She won both Hugo and Nebula awards. Her first published book was Patternmaster in 1976. Other works of hers include Lilith's Brood and the Parable series, and her final book, Fledgling. She was working on a third book in the Parable series when she died of a stroke in 2006, aged 58.

Works:

 * Patternist series (1976)
 * Kindred (1979)
 * Lilith's Brood
 * Dawn (1987)
 * Adulthood Rites (1988)
 * Imago (1989)
 * Parable of the Sower (1993)
 * Parable of the Talents (1998)
 * Fledgling (2005)

Tropes:

 * Author Existence Failure: She died before completing a third book in the Parable series. Her last completed book, Fledgling, also left room for a sequel.
 * Humans Are White: Her books avert this.
 * Speculative Fiction: Her book Kindred is often seen as either Science Fiction (due to the Time Travel, despite the fact that no explanation is ever given) or African-American fiction (because it's about an African-American, and thus Lit Fic). Butler herself saw it as Fantasy.