Celebrating Ursula K. Le Guin

We are, over the next few weeks, going to be celebrating the great Ursula K. Le Guin. Why?  Well, why not? She is a giant of modern literature – both within genre and without – and she’s won a staggering five Hugos, six Nebulas, two World Fantasy Awards, three James Tiptree Jr Memorial Awards, a Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and more Locus Awards than you could count even if you took your shoes and socks off. Also, we’ve recently added the jewel in Ursula Le Guin’s SF crown to our Masterworks series (but more of that later). That’s why.

To kick off proceedings, we can’t think of a better way to showcase the passion, humanity, intellect and spirit that inhabits Ursula K. Le Guin‘s work than to enjoy, once again, the utterly brilliant acceptance speech, she  gave upon receiving the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, in November, three years ago:

It is, we’re sure you’ll agree, a wonderful speech – as one would expect from the first author ever to win both Hugo and Nebula awards for the same novel on two separate occasions. It is also, we’re sure you’ll agree, worth celebrating.