Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was born on October 21, 1929, the daughter of Alfred Kroeber, an anthropologist and his wife Theodora, a children's author in Berkley, California, the only girl in a family of four children.

Ursula was brought up in academia and she earned an undergraduate degree from Radcliffe and a master's degree from Columbia in 1952 (in Romance Literatures of the Middle Ages and Renaissance) . She was awarded a Fulbright scholarship and travelled to France to study. It was there that she met Charles Le Guin, who she later married, and the couple have three children.

She submitted her first story to Amazing Stories Magazine, at eleven years old -- a science fiction story about time travel. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't published, but this blighting of her youthful ambition didn't deter her, and she went on to become one of the most celebrated writers in the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre.

Though she has published numerous novels, short stories and poems, Le Guin is probably best known for only a few of these works, specifically the young adult Earthsea series, (which follows the life of the Wizard Ged (Sparrowhawk) while he acquires, perfects and finally loses magic), her science fiction novels The Left Hand of Darkness, which explores the issues of living in an androgynous society, and The Dispossessed in which contrasts two completely opposed societies, one truly communist, and one completely capitalist. Both these latter two novels won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and The Dispossessed was also Awarded the Campbell Memorial Award and entered in The Prometheus Hall of Fame.

Le Guin is one of the most 'decorated' authors in the speculative fiction genre, overall, and has received countless awards, including several Nebulas and Hugos, a Pulitzer Prize nomination, The Kafka Award , the James Tiptree Award, The National Book Award for Children's Literature and the Newberry Silver Medal.

Now 72, she lives in Portland Oregon.

Bibliography

Books marked with * are parts of the Earthsea series

Novels

• Gifts (2004)
• The Other Wind* (2001)
• The Telling (2000)
• Tehanu* (1990)
• Always Coming Home (1985)
• The Beginning Place (1980) (aka Threshold)
• Malafrena (1979)
• The Eye of the Heron (1978)
• The Word for World is Forest (1976)
• Very Far Away from Anywhere Else (1976)
• The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia (1974)
• The Farthest Shore* (1972)
• The Tombs of Atuan * (1971)
• The Lathe of Heaven (1971)
• The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)
• A Wizard of Earthsea* (1968)
• City of Illusions (1967)
• Planet of Exile (1966)
• Rocannon's World (1966)

Short Story Collections

• Changing Planes (2004)
• Tales from Earthsea* (2001)
• The Birthday of the World
• Unlocking the Air and Other Stories (1996)
• Searoad (1995)
• Four Ways to Forgiveness (1995)
• A Fisherman of the Inland Sea (1994)
• Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences (including the award winning "Buffalo Gals Won't You Come out Tonight?") (1987)
• The Compass Rose (1982)
• Orsinian Tales (1976)
• The Wind's Twelve Quarters (1975)

Children's books

• Jane On Her Own (1999)
• Tom Mouse and Ms. Howe (1998)
• Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings (1994)
• Fish Soup (1992)
• A Ride on the Red Mare's Back (1992)
• Catwings Return (1989)
• Catwings (1988)
• A Visit from Dr. Katz (1988)
• Solomon Leviathan's 931st Trip Around the World (1983)
• The Adventures of Cobbler's Rune (1982)
• Leese Webster (1979)

Poetry

• Walking in Cornwall: A Poem for the Solstice
• Wild Angels
• Sixty Odd: New Poems (1999)
• The Twins, the Dream / Las Gemelas, El Sueño With Diana Bellessi (1996)
• Going Out With Peacocks and Other Poems (1994)
• Wild Oats and Fireweed (1988)
• Hard Words, and Other Poems (1981)

Non Fiction

• Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew (1998)
• Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places (1997)
• The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction (1979)