Advanced Fiction Writing Course: Le Guin, Ursula K.

Dana Gluckstein: Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018)

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin
(1929-2018)

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the Earthsea fantasy series. Her literary career spanned nearly sixty years, yielding more than twenty novels and over a hundred short stories, in addition to poetry, literary criticism, translations, and children's books.

Le Guin was born in Berkeley, California, to author Theodora Kroeber and anthropologist Alfred Louis Kroeber. She married historian Charles Le Guin in 1953 and they had three children together. She began writing full-time in the late 1950s and achieved major critical and commercial success with A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) and The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), seen by critic Harold Bloom as her masterpieces.

Her works are now being collected in eight volumes (of which five have already appeared) in the prestigious Library of America series.

Ursula K. Le Guin: The Hainish Novels & Stories (2017)

Select Bibliography:

Novels:

Rocannon's World. 1966. A Star Book. London: W. H. Allen & Co., Ltd. 1980.

Planet of Exile / Thomas M. Disch. Mankind under the Leash. Ace Double. New York: Ace Books, Inc., 1966.

City of Illusions. 1967. Panther Science Fiction. St Albans, Herts: Panther Books, 1973.

The Left Hand of Darkness. 1969. Panther Science Fiction. St Albans, Herts: Panther Books, 1975.

The Lathe of Heaven. 1971. Panther Science Fiction. St Albans, Herts: Panther Books, 1974.

The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia. 1974. Panther Science Fiction. St Albans, Herts: Panther Books, 1975.

The Word for World is Forest. 1977. Panther Books. London: Granada Publishing, 1980.

Malafrena. 1979. Panther Books. London: Granada Publishing, 1981.

Threshold. [As ‘The Beginning Place’, 1980]. Panther Books. London: Granada Publishing, 1982.

Always Coming Home. Artist: Margaret Chodos. Composer: Todd Baron. Geomancer: George Hersh. 1985. London: Victor Gollancz, 1986.

Searoad: Chronicles of Klatsand. 1991. London: Victor Gollancz, 1992.

The Telling. 2000. London: Gollancz, 2003.

Lavinia. 2008. Mariner Books. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2009.

Short Stories:

The Wind's Twelve Quarters. 1975. 2 Vols. Panther Books. London: Granada Publishing, 1978.

Orsinian Tales. 1976. Panther Books. London: Granada Publishing, 1978.

Virginia Kidd, ed. The Eye of the Heron and Other Stories. By Ursula K. Le Guin et al. [As ‘Millennial Women’, 1978]. Panther Books. London: Granada Publishing, 1980.

Le Guin, Ursula K. The Compass Rose: Short Stories. 1982. London: Victor Gollancz, 1983.

Buffalo Gals, and Other Animal Presences. 1987. A Plume book. New York: New American Library, 1988.

A Fisherman of the Inland Sea. 1994. London: Vista, 1997.

Four Ways to Forgiveness. 1995. HarperPrism. New York: HarperCollins, 1996.

Unlocking the Air and Other Stories. 1996. HarperPerennial. New York: HarperCollins, 2005.

The Birthday of the World and Other Stories. 2002. London: Gollancz, 2003.

Changing Planes: Stories. Illustrated by Eric Beddows. Orlando, Fl: Harcourt, Inc., 2003.

The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories, Volume 1: Where on Earth. 2012. Gollancz. London: Orion Publishing Group, 2014.

The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories, Volume 2: Outer Space, Inner Lands. 2012. Gollancz. London: Orion Publishing Group, 2015.

The Found and the Lost: The Collected Novellas. Saga Press. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2016.

YA Fiction:

A Wizard of Earthsea. 1968. Drawings by Ruth Robbins. Puffin Books, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976.

The Tombs of Atuan. 1971. Puffin Books, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975.

The Farthest Shore. 1972. Puffin Books, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975.

A Very Long Way from Anywhere Else. [As ‘Very Far Away from Anywhere Else’, 1976]. Peacock Books. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.

Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea. London: Victor Gollancz, 1990.

Tales from Earthsea. 2001. London: Orion Children’s Books, 2002.

The Other Wind. 2001. London: Orion Children’s Books, 2002.

Gifts. Annals of the Western Shore, 1. 2004. Orlando, Fl: Harcourt, Inc., 2006.

Voices. Annals of the Western Shore, 2. 2006. Orion Children's Books. London: Orion Publishing Group Ltd., Inc., 2007.

Powers. Annals of the Western Shore, 3. 2007. Orion Children's Books. London: Orion Publishing Group Ltd., Inc., 2008.

Non-fiction:

From Elfland to Poughkeepsie (1973)

The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction. Ed. Susan Wood. 1979. Rev ed. London: The Women’s Press, 1989.

Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places. London: Victor Gollancz, 1989.

Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew. Portland, Oregon: The Eighth Mountain Press, 1998.

The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination. Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 2004.

Cheek by Jowl: Talks & Essays on How & Why Fantasy Matters. Seattle, Washington: Aqueduct Press, 2009.

Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016, with a Journal of a Writer’s Week. Northampton, Mass: Small Beer Press, 2016.

No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters (2017)

Dreams Must Explain Themselves and Other Essays: 1972–2004 (2018)

Conversations on Writing: Ursula K. Le Guin with David Naimon (2018)

Poetry:

Wild Angels. 1975. In The Capra Chapbook Anthology. Ed. Noel Young. Santa Barbara, CA: Capra Press, 1979.

Hard Words and Other Poems (1981)

Wild Oats and Fireweed: New Poems (1988)

Going out with Peacocks and Other Poems (1994)

[with Diana Bellessi] The Twins, The Dream: Two Voices / Las Gemelas, El Sueño: Dos Voces (1997)

Sixty Odd (1999)

Incredible Good Fortune (2006)

Four Different Poems (2007)

Out Here: Poems and Images from Steens Mountain Country. Photographs by Roger Dorband (2010)

Finding My Elegy: New and Selected Poems (2012)

Late in the Day: Poems 2010-2014 (2015)

So Far So Good: Final Poems 2014-2018 (2018)

Translation:

Lao Tzu. Tao Te Ching. A Book about the Way & the Power of the Way. Translated with J. P. Seaton. 1997. Boston & London: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1998.

Collected Works:

The Complete Orsinia: Malafrena; Stories and Songs. Ed. Brian Attebery. Ursula K. Le Guin Collection, 1. The Library of America, 281. 1979, 1976. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 2016.

The Hainish Novels & Stories, vol. 1: Rocannon's World; Planet of Exile; City of Illusions; The Left Hand of Darkness; The Dispossessed; Stories. 1964, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1974. Ed. Brian Attebery. Ursula K. Le Guin Collection, 2. The Library of America, 296. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 2017.

The Hainish Novels & Stories, vol. 2: The Word for World is Forest; Five Ways to Forgiveness; The Telling; Stories. 1977, 1995, 2000. Ed. Brian Attebery. Ursula K. Le Guin Collection, 3. The Library of America, 297. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 2017.

The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition – A Wizard of Earthsea; The Tombs of Atuan; The Farthest Shore: Tehanu; Tales of Earthsea; The Other Wind. 1968, 1972, 1973, 1990, 2001, 2001. Illustrated by Charles Vess. Saga Press. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2018.

Always Coming Home: Author’s Expanded Edition. 1985. Ed. Brian Attebery. Ursula K. Le Guin Collection, 4. The Library of America, 315. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 2019.

Annals of the Western Shore: Gifts; Voices; Powers . 2004, 2006, 2007. Ed. Brian Attebery. Ursula K. Le Guin Collection, 5. The Library of America, 335. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 2020.