Ursula Le Guin biography
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was born on the 21st October 1929 in California and is an American author of novels, poetry and short stories. She has won numerous awards during her distinguished career, notably the Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master award in 2003.
It is with Le Guin's fantasy series Earthsea that we will concentrate. In 1968, A Wizard of Earthsea was published and this was followed by The Tombs of Atuan in 1971, and The Farthest Shore in 1972. In 1990, Ursula Le Guin came back to the series with Tehanu. These four books now make up a new publication entitled The Earthsea Quartet. The Other Wind, published in 2001 completes the novels of Earthsea. A number of short stories also bridge gaps between the main novels. The Word of Unbinding and The Rule of Names (1975), plus Dragonfly and The Tales of Earthsea (2001) are all vital reading for all Earthsea fans.
There are strong themes of sociology and anthropology running through Ursula Le Guin's work and her attention to detail has been a factor in the worldwide popularity of her work.
Ursula Le Guin describes her working day as not thrilling in anyone else's eyes but one full of passion, excitement, anxiety, joy and grief to her.
The dark, dry, changeless world after death of Earthsea comes (in so far as I am conscious of its sources) from the Greco-Roman idea of Hades' realm, from certain images in Dante, and from one of Rilke's Elegies. A realm of shadow, dust, where nothing changes and "lovers pass each other in silence" - it seems a fairly common way of thinking about what personal existence after death would be, not a specifically modern one? 
The word feminist has often been thrown at Ursula Le Guin and at her books but in reality this very far from the truth. She simply makes the female characters in her books as important as the male's and ensures that they are characters and not stereotypes.
Ursula Le Guin has three children and four grandchildren and has lived in Portland since 1958. She wrote her first story at the age of eleven before earning a Bachelor of Arts from Radcliffe College and a Master of Arts from Columbia University. Later, studying in France she met her future husband Charles Le Guin.
When asked for her opinion on the Harry Potter novel, she said that she found the first Harry Potter book to be a "lively kid's fantasy crossed with a 'school novel'" but also found it "stylistically ordinary, imaginatively derivative, and ethically rather mean-spirited." It has been said that "Rowling can type, but Le Guin can write."
Within my field of work—imaginative fiction—I think I have had an appreciable effect on the representation of gender and of "race," specifically skin color. When I came into the field, the POV was totally male-centric and everybody was white. At first I wrote that way too. In science fiction, I joined the feminist movement when it reawoke in the late Sixties, early Seventies, and we did away with the squeaking Barbies and began to write actual women characters. In fantasy, my heroes were colored people when, as far as I know, nobody else's were. (And yet I still fight, every single fantasy jacket-cover, to get them represented as nonwhite).
Ursula Le Guin awards
- National Book Award for The Farthest Shore
- Nebula Award for Tehanu
- Endeavour Award for The Tales from Earthsea
Ursula Le Guin books
- A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)
- The Tombs of Atuan (1971)
- The Farthest Shore (1972)
- Tehanu (1990)
- The Other Wind (2001)
- The Word of Unbinding (1975)
- The Rule of Names (1975)
- Tales from Earthsea (2001)
- Gifts (2004)
- Voices (2006)
- Powers (2007)
Latest news: Ursula Le Guin
The Citizen Patriot’s excellent Ursula Le Guin interview
Jackson District Library will be hosting a Big Read event, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, and inspired by Le Guin’s Earthsea books. The Citizen Patriot conducted a really interesting and informative interview with Le Guin prior to the Big Read launch. Living in the UK as I do, the [...]
Interview with Chris Dolley of the Book View Café (February 2010)
Book View Café is a cooperative site created by a group of writers - including internationally renowned authors Katharine Kerr, Ursula Le Guin and Vonda N. McIntyre - who want to take advantage of the internet’s possibilities for reaching a wider audience and to distribute their work directly to th [...]
The ins and outs of the Google Book Settlement
The families of John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie have decided to opt in to the revised Google Book Search settlement. Gail Steinbeck, who initially opposed the settlement and Arlo Guthrie, said they would not bring a separate lawsuit against Google. Ms. Steinbeck is the wife of the late John Steinbe [...]
Ursula Le Guin gathers writers to fight against Google digital book settlement
As the January 28 deadline approaches for those wishing to opt-out of the Google digital book settlement, author Ursula Le Guin has gathered more than 300 signatures in her fight against the scheme to digitise books. Le Guin has been vocal in her opposition to the Google book settlement, recently si [...]
Alison Goodman interview (January 2010)
Alison Goodman was born in Melbourne and, after a bit of wandering, recently returned to live there. She was a D.J. O’Hearn Memorial Fellow at Melbourne University, holds a Masters degree and teaches creative writing at postgraduate level. Her debut novel was the award-winning futuristic thriller S [...]
Round-up: JA Rowling, Bath-time for Pullman and Le Guin not finished yet
A round-up of fantasy news around the world. A rare JK Rowling uncorrected proof sells for £1,600 An uncorrected proof edition of JK Rowling’s very first Harry Potter book has been sold for £1600 at auction. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, attributed to JA Rowling was bought by a co [...]
Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George reviewed on Fantasy Book Review
Delightful Dragon Tale - Sandy Lender's review of Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George A quick opening gets us right into the first portion of the story. The aunt and uncle who have taken in Creelisel Carlbrun and her brother Hagen can’t afford the extra mouths and certainly can’t offer a dowry to [...]
Google Book settlement leads to Ursula Le Guin resignation from Authors Guild
Ursula Le Guin, whose membership in the Authors Guild dates back to 1972, has resigned from the organization, citing her unhappiness with the role the Guild played in the Google Book settlement. “You decided to deal with the devil, as it were, and have presented your arguments for doing so. I wish [...]
The Tombs of Atuan (unabridged) read by Karen Archer
Synopsis In the legends of Earthsea, it is said that the wizard and king Erreth-Akbe was defeated by the high priest of the Kargad lands, and his amulet of power, bearing the rune of bonding, was broken and was lost. Now, in the second book of Earthsea, the wizard Sparrowhawk enters the menacin [...]
Trudi Canavan interview (August 2009)
By Joshua S Hill
It has become quite apparent to me that Australia is producing more and more of fantasy’s best writers. Thankfully for me, they are also some of the nicest people around, and one of the best, Trudi Canavan, was happy enough to sit down with me a few weeks ago.
Funnily enough, [...]
Ursula Le Guin interviews
An Ursula Le Guin question and answer session with The Guardian in 2004. Ursula Le Guin interview in The Guardian (2004) >>
In an interview with a Spanish fantasy website Ursula Le Guin discusses feminism and her writing style. The interview is initially in Spanish but trancripted into English further down the page.
Ursula Le Guin interview >>
Ursula Le Guin critical acclaim
Earthsea ... has made her name spell enchantment, gentle terror and pleasure to children and adults alike. Independent on Sunday
We are ready for new parables, and here they are; we are in need of great adventures to lift us out of self and here, in these breath-taking fantasies, we find them. The Times Educational Supplement
Book of the Month
Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill
Some doors are better left closed . . . In Barrington House, an upmarket block in London, there is an empty apartment. No one goes in, no one comes out. And it’s been that way for fifty years. Until the night watchman hears a disturbance after midnight and investigates. What he experiences is enough to change his life forever.
Latest interviews
Interviews plus question and answer sessions with authors, narrators and publishers.
Must-reads
The following reviews are of books that begin the very best fantasy series available.
Special Feature: Fantasy Book Review talks to the Book View Cafe
Book View Cafe is a cooperative site created by a group of writers - including internationally renowned authors Katharine Kerr, Ursula Le Guin and Vonda N. McIntyre - who want to take advantage of the internet's possibilities for reaching a wider audience and to distribute their work directly to their readers. The Book View Cafe is a place where you can find free, original fiction plus the authors' best and out-of-print work for a fee. Fantasy Book Review spoke to Book View Cafe member, science fiction author and memoirist Chris Dolley in February 2010.
Special Feature: Understanding the author of Alice in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll, the elusive author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, has been the subject of enduring fascination for the past hundred years. The destruction of many major documents about his personal life by his descendants has only magnified the mystery. Jenny Woolf's biography, published to coincide with the release of the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film, lays waste to the myths and suspicions that have obscured Carroll's reputation by placing him firmly in the context of his own time.
