Ursula K. Le Guin: Conversations on Writing

by Ursula K. Le Guin, David Naimon

Overview

Ursula K. Le Guin discusses her fiction, nonfiction, and poetry—both her process and her philosophy—with all the wisdom, profundity, and rigor we expect from one of the great writers of the last century.

When the New York Times referred to Ursula K. Le Guin as America’s greatest writer of science fiction, they just might have undersold her legacy. It’s hard to look at her vast body of work—novels and stories across multiple genres, poems, translations, essays, speeches, and criticism—and see anything but one of our greatest writers, period.

In a series of interviews with David Naimon (Between the Covers), Le Guin discusses craft, aesthetics, and philosophy in her fiction, poetry, and nonfiction respectively. The discussions provide ample advice and guidance for writers of every level, but also give Le Guin a chance to to sound off on some of her favorite subjects: the genre wars, the patriarchy, the natural world, and what, in her opinion, makes for great writing. With excerpts from her own books and those that she looked to for inspiration, this volume is a treat for Le Guin’s longtime readers, a perfect introduction for those first approaching her writing, and a tribute to her incredible life and work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781941040997
Publisher:	Tin House Books
Publication date:	04/03/2018
Pages:	150
Sales rank:	631,428
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.10(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Ursula K. Le Guin published twenty-one novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received the Hugo, Nebula, Endeavor, Locus, Tiptree, Sturgeon, PEN/Malamud, and National Book awards and the Pushcart and Janet Heidinger Kafka prizes, among others. In recent years she received lifetime achievement awards from the World Fantasy Awards, Los Angeles Times, Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, and Willamette Writers, as well as the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master Award, the Library of Congress “Living Legend” award, and the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Le Guin was the recipient of the Association for Library Service to Children’s May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award and the Margaret Edwards Award. She lived in Portland, Oregon, and her website is www.ursulakleguin.com.

David Naimon is a writer and host of the radio show and podcast Between The Covers in Portland, Oregon. His work has appeared in Tin House, AGNI, Fourth Genre, Boulevard, ZYZZYVA, and elsewhere.  His writing has been reprinted in The Best Small Fictions 2016 and cited in the 2016 Pushcart Prize volume, The Best American Essays 2015, and The Best American Travel Writing 2015.  His podcast and writing can be found at: www.davidnaimon.com

 

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

Editorial Reviews

01/22/2018
Originating in three interviews that short-story author Naimon conducted with SF stalwart Le Guin (The Found and the Lost) for the radio show Between the Covers, this book is an enlightening conversation about the writing process. Both authors adopt the tone of artisans discussing their craft, and each’s delight at debating with a like-minded professional is evident throughout. Le Guin stresses the importance of knowing grammatical rules, arguing that to write “anything, you’ve got to have the tools to make it.” Naimon, clearly well versed in Le Guin’s work, connects their discussion of language to her novels The Dispossessed, about an “anarchist utopia” with no possessive pronouns, and The Left Hand of Darkness, about an alien race without any fixed gender. Le Guin picks her words and subjects carefully, expositing boldly on writing as an inherently political act (an insight she traces back to George Orwell) and on Margaret Atwood’s discomfort with labeling her work science fiction, while shutting down conversations on subjects she feels less able to speak to, such as self-publishing. Her expansive knowledge of the SF genre provides, most strikingly, a sharp perspective on how its female practitioners have too often been forgotten in favor of their male contemporaries. Her rapport with Naimon results in an exchange that is both informative and charming. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"For nuggets of fiery wisdom and plunges into literary form and purpose from the late, great Ursula K. Le Guin, look to Tin House’s newly published Conversations on Writing."

Portland Monthly

"In this small, beautifully crafted book, the conversations range from style to point of view to genre to why we should use 'they' as singular. . . . Together, Le Guin and Naimon demonstrate engagement at its finest."

World Literature Today

"In her introduction to this volume, Le Guin states that the good interview is a conversation between people who have thought about what they’re talking about. That’s a perfect description of this thoughtful collection . . . 'What I really like to do,' Le Guin states, 'is talk shop.' Readers are privileged to listen while she does."

Booklist

"Fueled by Naimon's incisive questions and peppered with excerpts from Le Guin's books, these wide-ranging interviews are a treat for both longtime fans and newcomers to her work."

Shelf Awareness

2018-02-20
Thoughtful reflections on the writing life from the late author (1929-2018).Le Guin (No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters, 2017, etc.), the winner of a host of awards during her prolific career, likened a successful interview to "a good badminton rally," where the birdie floats effortlessly between the players. Her three conversations with writer, editor, and radio show and podcast host Naimon felt good from the start, a process of mutual discovery and intelligent exchanges about fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, three genres to which Le Guin devoted much of her career (she was also an essayist, children's book author, playwright, and translator). The author admitted feeling most comfortable talking about fiction, the subject of her recent book Steering the Craft, to which Naimon frequently referred as they discussed such writerly concerns as grammar, sentence rhythm, and point of view. Use of the present tense, common in contemporary fiction, results, Le Guin said, in "flashlight focus," where readers see only what is directly ahead. It is "great for high suspense, high drama, cut-to-the-chase writing," but otherwise, she found the authorial point of view (a term she preferred to "omniscient") "the most flexible and useful." Le Guin cited Virginia Woolf, Tolstoy, Orwell, Grace Paley, Margaret Atwood, and José Saramago (a late discovery, she admitted) as writers she particularly admired. Although more tentative discussing poetry, she conceded that her work reflected an immersion in Taoism and Buddhism "so deep in me and everything I do." A.E. Housman, Rilke, and Gabriela Mistral, whom she felt was unjustly ignored, earned her special praise. Le Guin's political views surfaced strongly in the discussion about nonfiction, and Naimon asked about writing across differences of race, gender, or culture: "When does an attempt to understand become co-optation?" Acknowledging the complexity of the question, Le Guin responded, "eternal vigilance is required." The conversations are interspersed with excerpts from Le Guin's work and that of other writers discussed.Candid and perceptive last words by a treasured writer.

Kirkus Reviews