Ursula K. Le Guin

Celebrated for such science fiction classics as The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, as well as the young adult fantasy Earthsea series, Ursula K. Le Guin’s work highlights themes of anthropology, gender, environmentalism, and anarchism.

Much of Le Guin's science fiction work is set in a common universe, covering almost 2,500 years of future history beginning 300 years from now. Generally known as the Hainish series, it consists of seven novels and several novellas and short stories, among them The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), the first work of Le Guin's maturity as a writer, and a winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards for Best Novel.

Her young adult series Earthsea, is set in a vast archipelago where magic is common, known as a celebrated landmark of fantasy literature. Novels in that series have won the Nebula Award, the World Fantasy Award, Newberry Honor and a National Book Award.

Le Guin has since been honored with five Hugos and six Nebula awards, the Pilgrim Award for services to science fiction criticism, and a PEN/Malamud Award in 2002. Le Guin has demonstrated through example how the traditional novelist's interest in character and moral growth need not be alien to science fiction.