Ursula K. Le Guin:
Biographical Sketch
Ursula Kroeber was born in 1929 in
Berkeley, California, where she grew up. Her parents were the anthropologist
Alfred Kroeber and the writer Theodora Kroeber, author of Ishi. She went to Radcliffe College and did
graduate work at Columbia University. She married Charles A. Le Guin, a
historian, in Paris in 1953; they have lived in Portland, Oregon, since 1958,
and have three children and four grandchildren.
Ursula K. Le Guin writes both poetry and prose, and in
various modes including realistic fiction, science fiction, fantasy, young
children’s books, books for young adults, screenplays, essays, verbal texts for
musicians, and voicetexts. She has published seven books of poetry, twenty-two
novels, over a hundred short stories (collected in eleven volumes), four
collections of essays, twelve books for children, and four volumes of
translation. Few American writers have done work of such high quality in so
many forms.
Most of Le Guin’s major titles have remained continuously in print,
some for over forty years. Her best known fantasy works, the six Books of Earthsea, have sold millions of
copies in America and England, and have been translated into sixteen languages.
Her first major work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness, is considered
epoch-making in the field for its radical investigation of gender roles and its
moral and literary complexity. Her novels The Dispossessed and Always
Coming Home redefine the scope and style of utopian fiction,
while the realistic stories of a small Oregon beach town in Searoad show her permanent sympathy with
the ordinary griefs of ordinary people. Among her books for children, the Catwings series has become
a particular favorite. Her version of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, a translation she worked on
for forty years, has received high praise. Her poetry has drawn increasing
critical interest; Finding My Elegy,
published in 2012, contains poems selected from previous volumes and new work.
Three of Le Guin’s books have been finalists for the American Book
Award and the Pulitzer Prize, and among the many honors
her writing has received are a National Book Award, five Hugo Awards, five
Nebula Awards, SFWA’s Grand Master, the Kafka Award, a Pushcart Prize, the
Howard Vursell Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the L.A. Times
Robert Kirsch Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, the Margaret A. Edwards Award, and
in 2014 the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to
American Letters.
Le Guin has taken the risk of writing seriously and with rigorous
artistic control in forms some consider sub-literary. Critical reception of her
work has rewarded her courage with considerable generosity. Harold Bloom
includes her among his list of classic American writers. Grace Paley, Carolyn
Kizer, Gary Snyder, and John Updike have praised her work. Many critical and
academic studies of Le Guin’s work have been written, including books by
Elisabeth Cummins, James Bittner, B.J. Bucknall, J. De Bolt, B. Selinger, K.R.
Wayne, D.R. White, an early bibliography by Elizabeth Cummins Cogell and a
continuation of the bibliography by David S. Bratman.
Le Guin leads an intensely private life, with sporadic forays into
political activism and steady participation in the literary community of her
city. Having taught writing workshops from Vermont to Australia, she is now
retired from teaching. She limits her public appearances mostly to the West
Coast.
As of 2015, Le Guin’s most recent publications include The Unreal and the Real, 2012, and Steering the Craft: A 21st-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story, 2015. Forthcoming
in December 2015 is a new volume of poetry, Late
in the Day. For the full list
of the major publications see this website: About Ursula K. Le Guin –
Bibliographical Information – List of Major Titles [60Kb PDF].
Some quotes:
“If you want excess and risk and intelligence, try Le Guin.“
— The San Francisco Chronicle
“She wields her pen with a moral and psychological sophistication rarely seen... and while science fiction techniques often buttress her stories they rarely take them over. What she really does is write fables: splendidly intricate and hugely imaginative tales about such mundane concerns as life, death, love, and sex.“
— Newsweek
“Idiosyncratic and convincing, Le Guin’s characters have a long afterlife.“
— Publishers Weekly
“Eloquent, elegant... insightful, funny, sharp... and nearly always provocative“
— The Washington Post
“Her worlds are haunting psychological visions molded with firm artistry“
— The Library Journal
“Like all great writers of fiction, Ursula K. Le Guin creates imaginary worlds that restore us, hearts eased, to our own.“
— The Boston Globe
“Her characters are complex and haunting, and her writing is remarkable for its sinewy grace.“
— Time
“I realy liked Catwings alot and I hope you will write more about them. I drew a picture of a Catwing.“
— Josh B., Age 8, Detroit
Website Copyright © 2019 Ursula K. Le Guin
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