Biography

On this page you'll find some information about Ursula K. LeGuin.

About Ursula K Le Guin

Ursula Kroeber (that's what the "K" in her name stands for) was born on October 21, 1929. Her father, Alfred Kroeber, was an anthropologist, and her mother, Theodora, a writer of children's stories. One of her books is dedicated "to my brothers: Clifton, Ted, Karl". She has three children and two grandchildren. She is considered a great author, but not a particularly tall one: she is 5' 4" (or 163 cm) tall.

Her first submitted story, to Amazing Stories, was a science fiction story about time-travel. The story was not accepted - but on the other hand, she was eleven years old at the time.

She studied literature at Radcliffe, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, and went on to earn her M.A. from Columbia university, in 1952. After being awarded a Fulbright fellowship she went to study in France. There she met Charles Le Guin, whom she later married. They first moved to Macon, Georgia. Mrs. Le Guin now lives in Portland, Oregon.

Her first published piece of fiction was a short story in Amazing Stories called April in Paris. If you wish to read it, it also appears in a collection of short stories entitled The Wind's Twelve Quarters.

Just another sci-fi writer?

Le Guin does write science fiction, but it is very far from Aliens or Babylon 5. Not that these are particularly poor productions - it's just another type of science fiction. Somebody thought Le Guin's books were "Boring - they're philosophy disguised as science fiction."

Indeed her books are often "in disguise" - in that there is more to it than "bug-eyed monsters". I don't think Le Guin intended us to read her stories as anything more than what they are. When she writes of other planets, they really are other planets, but the stories are universal. Being human is really the same thing, whether it's on some other world, or here, on Earth.

Le Guin also writes more than science fiction and fantasy. She has published several volumes of poetry, mainstream fiction and children's stories, she he worked with photographers, she has written several books with essays, and a book on how to deal with narrative in fiction and non-fiction. (See the "books" section for a completish listing of her works).