80!: Memories & Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin

by Karen Joy Fowler, Debbie Notkin (Editor)

A private gift to Ursula K. Le Guin becomes a gift to all readers, an exciting chance to enjoy someone else's birthday present. In 2009, for the momentous occasion of Ursula K. Le Guin's 80th birthday, Karen Joy Fowler and Debbie Notkin put together a volume of tributes and appreciations, as a birthday present. The project, known in academic circles as a ''festschrift,'' or ''celebration book,'' resulted in a single copy, handbound in green leather, which Karen presented to Ursula a few days after her birthday in October. The original idea came from Kim Stanley Robinson, who also contributed an essay to the book. With Ms. Le Guin's kind agreement, Aqueduct Press is delighted to share this unique celebration with Le Guin's readers and fans. The book contains poetry, personal essays, academic essays, biographical information about Le Guin, as well as fiction, including previously unpublished fiction by Andrea Hairston and John Kessel. Publication will coincide with Le Guin's 81st birthday. Contributors include Eleanor Arnason, Brian Attebery, Richard Chwedyk, Karen Joy Fowler, Molly Gloss, Eileen Gunn, Andrea Hairston, Jed Hartman, Gwyneth Jones, John Kessel, Ellen Kushner, Nancy Kress, Sarah LeFanu, Vonda N. McIntyre, Pat Murphy, Julie Phillips, Paul Preuss, Kim Stanley Robinson, Nisi Shawl, Lisa Tuttle, Élisabeth Vonarburg, and Jo Walton, among others.

Genres: Nonfiction

238 pages, Paperback

First published October 21, 2010

About the author

Karen Joy Fowler is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels and three short story collections. Her 2004 novel, The Jane Austen Book Club, spent thirteen weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list and was a New York Times Notable Book. Fowler’s previous novel, Sister Noon, was a finalist for the 2001 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. Her debut novel, Sarah Canary, won the Commonwealth medal for best first novel by a Californian, was listed for the Irish Times International Fiction Prize as well as the Bay Area Book Reviewers Prize, and was a New York Times Notable Book. Fowler’s short story collection Black Glass won the World Fantasy Award in 1999, and her collection What I Didn’t See won the World Fantasy Award in 2011. Her most recent novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, won the 2014 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction and was short-listed for the 2014 Man Booker Prize. Her new novel Booth published in March 2022.

She is the co-founder of the Otherwise Award and the current president of the Clarion Foundation (also known as Clarion San Diego). Fowler and her husband, who have two grown children and seven grandchildren, live in Santa Cruz, California. Fowler also supports a chimp named Caesar who lives at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone.

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

It turns out I am not the only person who's read Ursula K. le Guin's work, and thus to have experienced all the epiphanies and lifechanging moments that come with it. At first this made me feel like these essayists were trespassing in my brain. But I kept reading, and I found that if you can get over your possessiveness (something le Guin would probably advise), it's extremely nice to relive your greatest literary love affair book by book, story by story. I was also grateful to the essayists for seizing the opportunity to tell her exactly how I feel about her, because I may never get the chance to stalk her to her house in the Pacific Northwest and blubber all over her.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the title suggests, this is a collection compiled in honor of Ursula K. Le Guin's 80th birthday. It includes essays, short stories, poetry, and an all-too-brief biographical piece by Julie Phillips (author of the excellent Tiptree/Sheldon biography). The short stories didn't really grab me, but I enjoyed most of the essays and the poems.

I read the first half of the book at my mother's house. This was ideal. While I've read a number of Le Guin's major works, I have not read everything she has written. My mother's house contains most of Le Guin's short story collections, as well as a good number of her novels. I sat on the couch and cross-referenced each loving essay with the story that inspired it, if it was one I hadn't yet read. The second half, at home, has taken me longer, since it involved note-taking and a whole lot more searching. I have a new pile of Le Guin to catch up on, and a new perspective on several old favorites.

[Psicologorroico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raccolta di saggi e poesie SU Ursula Le Guin. Sono presenti pure una breve biografia e quattro racconti. Questo libro, per chi ama Ursula, è un'ottima compagnia