Le Guin champions genre fiction - but not blindly. There are no bad genres.') exemplifies her keen ability to boil down complex issues to their essence, even as she argues with nuance and grace.Ĭlose overlay Buy Featured Book Title Words Are My Matter Subtitle Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016, With a Journal of a Writer's Week Author Ursula K. In the essay - which appears in Words Are My Matter but was originally a speech she delivered at a Public Library Association conference - Le Guin cites Virginia Woolf, Jorge Luis Borges, and the Bible in a sweeping, penetrating take on the way we categorize and prejudge everything from space opera to romance. With her characteristic mix of wit and erudition, she dives into the definitions of science fiction and fantasy in 'Genre: A Word Only a Frenchman Could Love,' her definitive statement on the subject.

One of our most acclaimed and inventive authors of speculative fiction, specifically science fiction and fantasy, Le Guin has thought - and written - long and hard about genre. Her 2016 collection of essays and reviews, Words Are My Matter, won the Hugo Award for Best Related Work in 2017, despite the fact that the book did not focus exclusively on science fiction - nor do her other nonfiction collections, including The Wave in the Mind from 2004 and now, No Time to Spare, a new book that assembles some of her most cogent ruminations on everything from gender politics to anthropology to, yes, science fiction and fantasy. Even further down on her résumé are her wins as a nonfiction writer. Accordingly, she's a brilliant poet, albeit a less recognized one.

But those distinct works share Le Guin's firm grasp of poetic language, science, and history. Sure, she's the author of iconic, award-winning science fiction novels such as 1969's The Left Hand of Darkness and 1971's The Lathe of Heaven, not to mention the beloved fantasy series The Earthsea Cycle, which began in 1968. Le Guin's mastery of fiction has remained so consistent throughout her decades-long career, it's easy to overlook her accomplishments in other forms.

Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title No Time to Spare Subtitle Thinking About What Matters Author Ursula K.

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