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Who am I? I'm a 56-year-old writer who can remember being a 10-year-old writer and who expects someday to be an 80-year-old writer. I'm comfortably asocial — a hermit living in a large city — a pessimist if I'm not careful; a student, endlessly curious; a feminist; an African American; a former Baptist; and an oil and water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive.
Novels, short stories, and essays. I've had 11 novels published so far. They are Patternmaster, Mind of my Mind, Survivor, Kindred, Wild Seed, Clay's Ark, Dawn, Adulthood Rites, Imago, Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. Parable of the Talents won a Nebula award as 2000. I've also had published a book of short fiction and nonfiction called Bloodchild and Other Stories. One story in this collection, "Speech Sounds," won a Hugo award as best short story of 1984. The title story, "Bloodchild," won both the 1985 Hugo and the 1984 Nebula awards as best novelette. And, speaking of awards, in 1995 I received a MacArthur Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. In 2000, I received a lifetime achievement award in writing from PEN.
I graduated from Pasadena City College in 1968 (Pasadena, California is my home town). Then I attended California State University, Los Angeles. I also took a few extension classes at UCLA. But the most valuable help I received with my writing came from two workshops. The first was the Open Door Program of the Screenwriter's Guild of America, West. I attended from 1969-1970. The second was Clarion Science Fiction Writers' Workshop which I attended in 1970.