Novelist, critic, and poet Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was born October 21, 1929, in Berkeley, California, to Alfred and Theodora Kroeber. Her father was an anthropologist and her mother was a writer. Their focus was learning about other cultures, which influenced Le Guin’s writing from an early age. She attended Berkeley High School. She received her BA from Radcliffe College in 1951. She would go on to receive a Master’s from Columbia in 1952, with a focus on French and Italian Renaissance poetry. She married Charles Le Guin in 1953 and moved to Portland, Oregon, where she still lives. They have three children.[1]

Le Guin's work has been honored with various awards. These include five Nebula awards for the best science fiction or fantasy in the US, and five Hugo awards for the best science fiction or fantasy worldwide. She is well known for her Earthsea fantasy series and for her other science fiction works, especially the critically acclaimed novel The Left Hand of Darkness. Le Guin has also written poetry, short stories, and children’s books. She has published twenty novels and nine volumes of short stories[2].