Comprehensive information and links about Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin (born October 21, 1929), is an American author. Although she has written novels, poetry, children's books, and essays, she is best known for her science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories. Le Guin has lived in Portland, Oregon, since 1958. The daughter of the anthropologist Alfred L. Kroeber and the writer Theodora Kroeber, she is noted for her exemplary and for her exploration of Taoist, anarchist, feminist, psychological and sociological themes.

First published in the 1960s, she is now regarded as one of the best modern science fiction authors. She has received several Hugo and Nebula awards, and was awarded the Gandalf Grand Master award in 1979 and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master Award in 2003.

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Biography

Le Guin was born and raised in Berkeley, California. She became interested in literature when she was very young. At the age of eleven she submitted her first story to the magazine ) from Radcliffe College in 1951, and M.A. from Columbia University in 1952. She later studied in France, where she met her husband, Charles Le Guin. Her earliest writings (little was published at the time, but some was published in adapted form much later in ), were non-fantastic stories of imaginary countries. Searching for a publishable way to express her interests, she returned to her early interest in science fiction and began to be published regularly in the early 1960s. She became famous after the publication of her 1969 novel , which won the Hugo and Nebula awards.

Much of Le Guin's science fiction is distinctive in its strong emphasis on the social sciences, including sociology and anthropology. Her writing often makes use of unusual alien cultures to convey a message about our own culture; one example is the exploration of sexual identity through the hermaphroditic race in known as the Ekumen.

A notable feature of her conception that sets her work apart from much of mainstream SF is that neither the old Empire nor the Ekumen possesses faster-than-light travel, although the politically progressive Ekumen thrives where the old Empire has failed mainly because it possesses a means of instantaneous interstellar communication, through a device called the ansible, the invention and consequences of which form the main plot of .

In this loose background scenario, the human species originated on the planet Hain in the distant past, near the galactic center. A Galactic Empire had expanded far out across the galaxy over many millennia but, because it lacked FTL travel or communication, the Empire was finally stretched beyond its limits by the vast distances involved and it collapses catastrophically.

Thousands of years pass, during which time the populations of many outlying planets become so isolated from the central galactic civilisation that they lose all knowledge of their origins, reverting to more archaic forms of civilisation and technology.

A number of Le Guin's works including deal with the consequences of the arrival of Ekumen envoys (known as "mobiles") on these remote planets and the culture shock that ensues.

Despite her many awards and her considerable popularity, Le Guin is also notable as one of the few major science fiction writers of her generation whose major SF and Fantasy works have not as yet been widely adapted for film or television. For television, E Network; The Earthsea trilogy was adapted as a TV miniseries in 2004 by the SciFi Channel but was generally very poorly reviewed and recieved. A cinema adaptation of Earthsea is in production at Studio Ghibli

Technique

Le Guin is known for her ability to create believable worlds populated by strongly sympathetic characters (regardless of whether they are technically 'human'). Her fantasy works (such as the series) are more concerned with the human condition than the works of traditional fantasy authors (such as J.R.R. Tolkien), and they often explore political and cultural themes from a very "un-Earthly" perspective. Le Guin has also written fiction set much closer to home; many of her short stories are set in our world in the present or the near future.

Le Guin is a prolific author and has published many works that are not listed here. Many works were originally published in science fiction literary magazines. Those that have not since been anthologized have fallen into obscurity.

, Le Guin was asked whether she pronounced her surname the French way (IPA: span title="Pronunciation in IPA" ). Her reply was Taoist in its duality: "Een zees country we say Luh Gwinn. En France nous disons Le Guin, comme le vin or le gain; et en Bretagne - c'est un nom breton - je crois que c'est encore Luh Gwinn. (Like Gwyn in Welsh - I think it's the same word.)" [2]

award in the "Writers and Artists" category in April 2000 for her significant contributions to America's cultural heritage.