Ursula K. LeGuin Collection - Fully Processed | Cushing Library

Ursula K. Le Guin was born on October 21, 1929, in Berkeley, California, the daughter of anthropologists Alfred L. and Theodora Kroeber. (This background may have inspired Le Guin's frequent anthropological and ethnographical explorations of humanity and other worlds in her fiction.) She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1951 with a B.A. in Renaissance French and Italian literature, and from Columbia University an M.A. in French and Italian literature in 1952. In 1953 she married the historian Charles A. Le Guin, and the two have resided in Portland, Oregon since 1958.

Most of the information below is drawn directly from Le Guin's website:

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.

Le Guin is one of the most honored and respected authors in science fiction. Three of Le Guin's books have been finalists for the American Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. She has won a number of honors in the science fiction and fantasy writing field, which include:

   --the 1970 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 1970 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and the 1995 Tiptree Retrospective Award for The Left Hand of Darkness

   --the 1972 Locus Poll Award for Best SF Novel for The Lathe of Heaven

   --the 1973 Hugo Award for Best Novella for The Word for World is Forest

   --the 1974 Hugo Award for Best Short Story for "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas"

   --the 1975 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 1975 Nebula Award for Best Novel,  the  1975 Locus Poll Award for Best SF Novel, and the 1993 Prometheus Hall of Fame Award, for The Dispossessed

   --the 1975 Nebula for Best Short Story for "The Day Before The Revolution"

   --the 1976 Locus Poll Award for Best Novelette for The New Atlantis

   --the 1976 Locus Poll Award for Best Single Author Collection for The Wind's Twelve Quarters

   --the 1983 Rhysling Award for Long Poem for "The Well of Bain"

   --the 1986 Ditmar Award for Best International Long Fiction for The Compass Rose

   --the 1988 Hugo Award for Best Novelette  and the 1988 World Fantasy Award for Best Novella for Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight

   --the 1991 Locus Poll Award for Best Fantasy Novel for Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea

   --the 1994 Tiptree Award for Gender-Bending SF for "The Matter of Seggri"

   --the 1995 Asimov's Readers Poll Award for Best Novella, the 1995 Locus Poll Award for Best Novella, and the 1995 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for Forgiveness Day

   --the 1996 Asimov's Readers Poll Award for Best Novella for A Woman's Liberation

   --the 1996 Nebula Award for Best Novelette for Solitude

   --the 1996 Locus Poll Award for Best Collection for Four Ways to Forgiveness

   --the 1996 Tiptree Award for Gender-Bending SF and the 1997 Locus Poll Award for Best Novelette for Mountain Ways

   --the 2001 Endeavour Award for Distinguished Novel or Collection for The Telling

   --the 2001 Locus Poll Award for Best SF Novel for The Telling

   --the 2001 Locus Poll Award for Best Novelette for The Birthday of the World

   --the 2002 Locus Poll Award for Best Novella for The Finder

   --the 2002 Locus Poll Award for Best Short Story for "The Bones of the Earth"

   --the 2002 Locus Poll Award for Best Collection for Tales of Earthsea

   --the 2002 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and the 2002 Endeavour Award for Distinguished Novel or Collection for The Other Wind

   --the 2003 Asimov's Readers Poll Award for Best Novelette, and the 2003 Locus Poll Award for Best Novelette, for The Wild Girls

   --the 2004 Locus Poll Award for Best Collection for Changing Planes

   --the 2009 Locus Poll Award for Best Fantasy Novel for Lavinia

   --the 2009 Nebula Award for Best Novel for Powers

   --the 2010 Locus Poll Award for Best Nonfiction/Art Book for Cheek By Jowl

Le Guin has also won the 1979 Gandalf Award for Grandmaster of Fantasy, the 1989 Pilgrim Award, and the 1995 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement. In 2001 she was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, and in 2003 the SFWA made her its 20th Grand Master. In 2014 Le Guin was awarded the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters by the National Book Foundation.