Ursula Le Guin

Ursula Le Guin, born in 1929, American fantasy and science-fiction writer.

Ursula Kroeber was born in Berkeley, California, and grew up immersed in legends and myths under the influence of her father, an anthropologist, and her mother, a children's author. She was educated at Radcliffe College and earned a master's degree at Columbia University in 1952. Kroeber then won a Fulbright fellowship for study in France. There she met and married Charles Le Guin, returning with him to Macon, Georgia, where she taught French at Mercer University.

In 1964, after writing five unpublished novels, Le Guin published Rocannon's World. The story takes place in the fictional Hainish universe, which is loosely based on the Odin myths of Scandinavian mythology. Other Le Guin books set in the Hainish universe include Planet of Exile (1966); City of Illusions (1967); The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), winner of the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award; The Dispossessed (1974), also a recipient of both the Nebula and Hugo awards; The Word for World Is Forest (1976); and Four Ways to Forgiveness (1995).

Le Guin is also well known for her books for children and young adults. She won the National Book Award for children's literature for The Farthest Shore (1972), the third book of her Earthsea series. Other Earthsea books include A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), The Tombs of Atuan (1970), Nebula Award winner Tehanu (1990), The Other Wind (2001), and Tales from Earthsea (2001). Additional works for children include Cobbler’s Rune (1983), Solomon Leviathan (1988), Fish Soup (1992), Jane on Her Own (1999), and Tom Mouse (2002).

Other novels by Le Guin include Eye of the Heron (1983), Always Coming Home (1985), The Telling (2000), and Gifts (2004). Some of her short-story collections are A Fisherman of the Inland Sea (1994), Unlocking the Air (1996), The Birthday of the World (2002), and Changing Planes (2003). Her works of poetry include Wild Angels (1974), Hard Words (1981), Blue Moon Over Thurman Street (1994), and Sixty Odd (1999).