Author Ursula Le Guin at the Bend Library on August 1st at 5:00 p.m.

Posted By:  Lisa McGean
Date Posted:  7/21/2009

The Deschutes Public Library is pleased to announce a reading by Oregon author Ursula Le Guin on Saturday, August 1st at 5:00 p.m.  The reading will take place upstairs at the Bend Public Library, and is free and open to the public.  Ms. Le Guin will be available to sign up to two books per person after the reading.

Ursula Le Guin, was born in 1929 in Berkeley, California, but has been a resident of Portland, Oregon since 1958.  She writes both poetry and prose, and in various modes including realistic fiction, science fiction, fantasy, young children’s books, and books for young adults.  She has published seven books of poetry, twenty-two novels, over a hundred short stories, 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, 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.  Her novels The Dispossessed and Always Coming Home redefine utopian fiction, while the realistic stories of a small Oregon beach town in Searoad show her sympathy with the ordinary griefs of ordinary people.

Three of Le Guin’s books have been finalists for the American Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, and among the many honors her writing has received are a National Book Award, five Hugo Awards, five Nebula Awards, SFWA’s Grand Master, the Kafka Award, a Pushcart Prize, and the list goes on…

Le Guin leads an intensely private life, with sporadic forays into political activism and steady participation in the literary community of her city, Portland.  Having taught writing workshops from Vermont to Australia, she is now retired from teaching, and limits her public appearances mostly to the West Coast.

People with disabilities needing accommodations (alternative formats, seating or auxiliary aides) should Lisa at 312-1034 or lisam@dpls.us