New posthumous collection of writings by legendary science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin. Sometimes polemical and often hilarious, it discusses feminism and radical alternatives on an intergalactic scope.

In the essay “Space Crone” (1976), Le Guin imagines a spaceship visiting earth that can take only one exemplary passenger back in the hopes of understanding the human condition. Though she expects most people would suggest sending a young man, Le Guin would prefer to send a woman over sixty, ideally someone just randomly pottering around Woolworths. Le Guin argues that this wise woman with little formal education has spent her life working hard at “small, unimportant jobs . . . like cooking, cleaning, bringing up kids, selling little objects of adornment or pleasure.” Now her feet ache. She imagines that the woman would be reluctant to act as an emissary for the human race, yet insists that only she has “experienced, accepted, and acted the entire human condition.”

Le Guin witnessed and contributed to many of the twentieth century’s rebellions and upheavals, including women’s liberation, the Civil Rights movement and US anti-war and environmental activism. Spanning fifty years of her life and work, Space Crone brings together Le Guin’s writings on feminism and gender for the first time, offering new insights into her imaginative, multispecies feminist consciousness: from its roots in deep ecology and philosophies of non-violence to her self-education about racism and her writing on motherhood and ageing.

Edited and introduced by So Mayer and Sarah Shin.
Paperback, published in 2023, 256 pages.

“An anarchic destabilizer of established power structures and a ferocious critic of racist and sexist narratives.” Maria Dahvana Headley

“great teacher. great spirit.” adrienne maree brown

“A crafter of fierce, focused, fertile dreams.” David Mitchell

“A deepener and clarifier of possibility.” Nicola Griffith