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photo by Eileen Gunn |
Ursula Le Guin gave me my very first blurb, for Ammonite. She didn’t know me from Eve, but I marched up to her at a reading in Atlanta, and said that thing all writers dread: “I’ve just written my first novel. Will you give give me a blurb?” She ventured that her rule was to read only first novels by new women writers. I said that I qualified. She agree that if that was so she would read the manuscript. It was. She did. She liked it. She blurbed it very generously.* She also told me that the Irish names were too much and way too difficult to pronounce. She was right, of course. She often is.
Here’s how it works: you pay $50 and in return you get half an hour of cocktail chat with fellow audience members, and the stars, accompanied by delicious–I mean it, really good–hors d’oeuvres, and wine or beer or soft drinks**. This is followed by an hour of wicked, honest and unmissable conversation as Vonda interviews Ursula. And then you get to ask questions. Think about that: you get to talk face to face with these embodiments, pioneers, pillars and exemplars of feminist science fiction.***
Join Ursula K. Le Guin and her interviewer Vonda N. McIntyre on Saturday evening, October 13, as they help us kick off our upcoming 30th Anniversary Year. From 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. we’ll celebrate Clarion West’s past record of excellence and reflect on our future growth at the Uptown Hideaway, 819 5th Ave N., in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood.
Attendance is limited to 100 people. Tickets are $50 each. All proceeds benefit Clarion West. Register here.
Kelley and I will be there, of course, as supporters of Clarion West (Kelley is the current Board Chair), as friends of Ursula and Vonda, and as grateful fans of the women who blazed the trails that others can now follow. Come join us.
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* “A knock-out first novel, with strong likeable characters, a compelling story, and a very interesting take on gender.” If that doesn’t match the quote on your copy of the book, it might be because the current edition of the book sports a second blurb, taken from Ursula’s comments as a juror for the 1993 Tiptree Award. So I’m doubly lucky.
** The food and drinks are donated by generous board members, and they’re definitely a cut above the fare usual at this sort of thing. I had a throughly fabulous time at the George R.R. Martin event.
*** You think I’m overstating the case? I’m not. Go read their work. Go do some research on the ways they’ve supported the community for the last forty years. You’ll see it doesn’t go nearly far enough.
Aw, I received an invitation to this and it KILLS me that I'm on the East Coast. Sigh. “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” pops into my head more often than any other work, I think.
“Only first novels by new women writers”!? I've been following her for years and didn't know that! Well, I know I'm going to write her a very nice letter when mine is in production :)
I still remember the line, “The king was pregnant.”
Oh, a nice letter is definitely worth your time.
LeGuin is a wonderful writer, I read her books the first time when I was 15 and been reading and rereading them since then. Currently I'm 31 so some of the books I've read many times :)
I've actually been writing her a letter every September for the last five years. Sometimes she replies (!!!) and sometimes not, but it's become a beloved ritual all the same.
I've read Earthsea a few times. Ditto Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed. Also the essay collections.
I've read most of LeGuin's books. The ones I have read I'm almost hoarding, because I want the surprise of a new LeGuin novel to last! I've re-read Earthsea a few times and the Left Hand of Darkness too. I would so love to go to this event. On the wrong continent though, but it's nice to hear your enthusiasm for it.
One day, CW will rule the world. Then events like this will be on every continent…
Yes I wish … it's only the four and a half thousand miles that's stopping me! Left Hand of Darkness is the best SF book I've ever read. I recently bought a new copy, since, like all my favourite books, I'd lent it to someone and not got it back. It's sitting beside my bed, waiting for that pleasurable moment when I allow myself the luxury of rereading an old favourite. At the same time, I bought a new copy of the Earthsea Trilogy, and it came with a fourth tale- what luxury- an Ursula Le Guin I hadn't read! Tehanu may well become my favourite.
Have you read her short fiction?