Name: Ursula K. Le Guin
Profession: Author of novels, children’s books, and short stories, mainly in the genres of fantasy and science fiction.
Awards: National Book Award, Nebula Award, Hugo Award (both won multiple times) and the list goes on, and on, and on. As it should.
Who would enjoy her writing: Anyone who likes the Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter or who has a pulse and an eye for good literature and a heart for another friend.
What you should know about her: She was one of the first women to emerge in science fiction and fantasy and to become a well known author as well as an inspiration to the literary community. She helped make science fiction and fantasy more than what was widely known as a subpar genre writing for nerds and eccentrics. Her lyrical style and rich prose constituted her work as literary even though she wrote about dragons, magic and sorcerers. She invented entire worlds, which she mapped out. She created magical systems and histories of imaginary places that have become grounded in the imagination of her readers as real. Not to mention that her characters have won a place in our hearts. It would take a much longer article, more like an encyclopedia, to cover all of her contributions to literature and to fantasy, but the best thing anyone who doesn’t know her can do, is to start somewhere. Pick up one of her Earthsea novels, or find one of her short stories online, like The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.
You’ve got to know, that before there was Harry Potter, there was Ged––the greatest sorcerer of Earthsea. And he set a precedent.
She’s a true gem of American literature, and she writes about her passions. She writes about things she falls in love with, and that, is ultimately what makes her work so striking: the pulse that runs through it all.
Some of our favorite quotes from her:
“When you light a candle, you also cast a shadow.”
“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.”
“People who deny the existence of dragons are often eaten by dragons. From within.”
“We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains.”
And last, but not least, to all us women, she says,
“Hey, guess what? You’re a woman. You can write like a woman. I saw that women don’t have to write about what men write about, or write what men think they want to read. I saw that women have whole areas of experience men don’t have—and that they’re worth writing and reading about.”
If you’d like to read or hear more about her you can read a transcript of her speech upon receipt of the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters (one of Literature’s most prestigious honors): https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/20/ursula-k-le-guin-national-book-awards-speech OR read her interview for the Paris Review here: http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6253/the-art-of-fiction-no-221-ursula-k-le-guin