During October, we celebrated Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea with a month of science fiction and fantasy events. Browse the events in the slideshow to the right to view photos and videos of our all-star lineup!
Keynote Event: Margaret Atwood
Atwood discussed her new book, In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination, and the impact that science fiction has had on her life as a reader and a writer. Watch video
Interview with Ursula K. Le Guin
On January 7, 2008, Dan Stone of the National Endowment for the Arts interviewed Ursula K. Le Guin at her home in Oregon. Excerpts from their conversation can be found here: Read
Exclusive Interview with Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood talks to our web editor, Dawn Raffel, about wonder tales, dystopias, and possible futures in this new interview exclusive to our magazine, The Literarian: Read more
The Big Read: A Wizard of Earthsea
Do you love science fiction? Are you a fantasy aficionado? Can't wait until the next season of Game of Thrones? Planning your next foray into the future? As part of The Big Read, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts, The Center for Fiction is pleased to present a series of science fiction and fantasy events during the month of October centered on a celebration of Ursula K. Le Guin's novel A Wizard of Earthsea.
About A Wizard of Earthsea
Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea has become a classic coming-of-age novel. Originally published as a young-adult fantasy novel in 1968, Le Guin's adventure tale proved so imaginatively engaging and psychologically profound that it captivates readers of all ages.
As of 2011, Ursula K. Le Guin has published twenty-one novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, etc. Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, an essay collection, Cheek by Jowl, and The Wild Girls. Forthcoming in 2012, Finding My Elegy, New and Selected Poems. She lives in Portland, Oregon. Read more
About the Big Read
The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts, designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The NEA presents The Big Read in partnership with Arts Midwest. The Big Read brings together partners across the country to encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment.
The Big Read answers a big need. Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, a 2004 report by the National Endowment for the Arts, found that not only is literary reading in America declining rapidly among all groups, but that the rate of decline has accelerated, especially among the young. The concerned citizen in search of good news about American literary culture would study the pages of this report in vain.
Big Read Events
10/03 Utopia/Dystopia
10/05 Why Fantasy Matters
10/12 Margaret Atwood on In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination
10/13 Before Harry Potter: YA and Fantasy
10/19 The Wave in the Mind
10/20 Earthsea Group Read
10/21 The Lathe of Heaven Screening
10/24 Outsiders in/of Science Fiction and the Fantastic
10/26 From Urdu Epic and Tibetan Sorcerers to Today
Media Sponsor
