Ursula K. LeGuin

The science fiction and fantasy novels of Ursula LeGuin, who was born Ursula Kroeber in Berkeley, California, have won a wide audience. In her science fiction she examines contemporary problems by restating them in terms of other imagined worlds--for example, the possibility for perfect anarchic society, in The Dispossessed, (1974); and life in an androgynous world, in The Left Hand of Darkness, (1969). LeGuin is also the author of a fantasy series for children, the Earthsea trilogy, and has received many awards, including the Boston Globe-Hornbook Award for juvenile fiction (1968) and the National Book Award (1973) for the children's book The Farthest Shore. Her other works include poetry, stories (collected in The Wind's Twelve Quarters, 1975), essays on science fiction, and the novels Malafrena (1979) and The Compass Rose (1982).

Website: http://www.ursulakleguin.com/