Gateway & Gollancz Announce Ursula K. Le Guin Deal
We are thrilled to announce a far-reaching new publishing project for Ursula K. Le Guin. We have acquired UK and Commonwealth Rights to five significant novels, two short story collections, a volume of selected non-fiction, as well as eBook rights to twelve widely-acclaimed novels including A Wizard of Earthsea and The Dispossessed amongst others.
Our announcement coincides with the initial broadcast of a BBC Radio 4 Ursula K. Le Guin documentary (today, 11.30am, BBC Radio 4) where Naomi Alderman talks to Ursula K. Le Guin about her life and work and hears from literary fans such as David Mitchell. The documentary will be followed by two BBC Radio 4 dramatizations of Left Hand of Darkness (starts 12 April, BBC Radio 4) and Earthsea (starts 27 April, BBC Radio 4 Extra)
Gillian Redfearn, Publishing Director of Gollancz, said: ‘Ursula K. Le Guin is one of the world’s finest writers, in or out of genre, and we’re delighted to have concluded this deal to add more of her novels to our SF Masterworks list and to publish eBooks of so many of her great SF and Fantasy works. It’s particularly pleasing to welcome the Earthsea books back to Gollancz, where we first published them in hardback over four decades ago.’
The deal includes rights to publish Hugo Award-winner The Word for World is Forest and the ground-breaking Always Coming Home in paperback and eBook.
We will also publish a paperback omnibus edition of the early “Hainish” novels – Rocannon’s World, Planet of Exile, and City of Illusions – and an omnibus volume of selected non-fiction to be compiled by the author and drawn from previous ground-breaking works including The Language of the Night, The Wave in the Mind and Dancing at the End of the World.
Two important short story collections, The Wind’s Twelve Quarters and The Compass Rose, will also be published in a paperback omnibus.
The “Hainish” novels, non-fiction titles and short story collections mentioned above will also be published individually as eBooks.
Most excitingly, Gollancz will also publish eBooks of the widely acclaimed Earthsea series, comprising A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, Tehanu, Tales From Earthsea and The Other Wind. Other titles to be published as eBooks include A Very Long Way from Anywhere Else, The Eye of the Heron and Unlocking the Air, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The eBooks will be published as part of an on-going programme over the coming years.
The books will be published as part of our popular SF Masterworks and Fantasy Masterworks list that aims to showcase landmark works of science fiction and fantasy from the 20th century. Current SF Masterworks By Ursula K. Le Guin – The Dispossessed and The Lathe of Heaven – will also receive eBook editions for the first time in the UK.
