The Word for World: The Maps of Ursula K. Le Guin

by Ursula K. Le Guin

Overview

When Ursula K. Le Guin started writing a new novel, she would begin by drawing a map. The Word for World is the first publication focusing on maps by the celebrated author, publishing many for the first time together with writing from a variety of perspectives to enquire into the relationship between the world and its representation through creative dialogue with her fictions. Her maps offer starting points to reflect on the roles of architecture and placemaking in the creative process, worldbuilding, and paradigms of knowledge, exemplified by the map’s edges and how a map is made. Through poems, stories, essays and theory, The Word for World reimagines her maps as carrying technologies of memory.

Co-published by Spiral House and AA Publications to coincide with an exhibition of Ursula K. Le Guin’s maps at the Architectural Association, London, opening on 10 October 2025.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781068591815
Publisher:	Spiral House Editions
Publication date:	01/10/2026
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.75(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) was a celebrated author of twenty-one novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve children’s books, six volumes of poetry and four of translation. The breadth and imagination of her work earned her six Nebulas, nine Hugos and SFWA’s Grand Master, along with the PEN/ Malamud and many other awards. In 2014 she was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and in 2016 joined the short list of authors to be published in their lifetimes by the Library of America.

Hometown:

Portland, Oregon

Date of Birth:

October 21, 1929

Place of Birth:

Berkeley, California

Education:

B.A., Radcliffe College; M.A., Columbia University, 1952

Website:

http://www.ursulakleguin.com