Ursula K. Le Guin.

Honestly, I thought about leaving this post begin and end with her name. Le Guin is an immortal institution in science fiction and fantasy, better yet, a luminary (a favorite Bulgarian expression) and a damn good one at that. I don’t think there’s a generation of readers or writers right now in genre that have not been touched by one of her works.

Earthsea served as my introduction to Le Guin’s work. I was fourteen and a self-proclaimed nerd as far as books were concerned. I used to bring my Tolkien omnibus to school, which occupied half my backpack and weighed a ton to a very physically-challenged teen. Why? So that I could crack it open in class or during recess and joke that I would do some light reading.

Coincidentally, Le Guin’s Earthsea translations had been lumped into one omnibus of their own, which I spent my summer vacation reading. By that time, I flirted with the idea that I could very well be one of these people telling amazing stories, but only dipped by toes into short stories and partial novel notes or at least a few chapters here and there. I remember it took me weeks to get through my first ever short story (“The Woman of Kemai”). The idea to spend months felt a lot like work.* Continue reading »