The SF and fantasy novelist worked on a selection of her non-fiction during her last year. Its subjects include motherhood, abortion and the menopause
In 1973 Ursula Le Guin was phoned by publisher and science fiction fan Andrew I Porter, trying to persuade her to write about herself in his magazine Algol. “Andy kept saying things like, ‘Tell the readers about yourself,’ and I kept saying things like, ‘How? Why?’” Standing in her hallway, with a child and a cat circling her legs, it seemed impossible to explain over the crackling connection that “the Jungian spectrum of introvert/extrovert can be applied not only to human beings but also to authors”. Le Guin knew that at one end of the spectrum there are authors such as Norman Mailer, who talk about themselves, and at the other, authors who, like her, need privacy.
When Le Guin died earlier this year, aged 88, the grief and gratitude her readers expressed were overwhelming. Through her Earthsea series, Hainish cycle and many other books she had enriched countless lives, broadened innumerable minds. In her last year, she worked on a selection of her non-fiction – essays, talks, introductions, reviews and meditations – for a British audience. Brief speeches given at the National Book awards ceremony, in 1972 and in 2014, open and close Dreams Must Explain Themselves, framing pieces spanning four decades drawn from previously published collections.
To keep women’s words alive and powerful – that’s our job as writers and readers for the next 15 years, and the next 50
Related: Ursula K Le Guin obituary
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