The periodical Western Humanities Review rests on a striped and pattered textile background. It is the summer of 1961 edition, and the table of contents includes "A World Divided in an Age of Space: A Symposium," with five parts; "The Next Human Nature" by Robert J. Blakely; "An die Musik" by Ursula Kroeber Le Guin; "Fathers and Sons: The Novel as Idyll" by James H. Justus; "William Styron's Long March: Absurdity and Authority" by Eugene McNamara; and poetry, notes, and book reviews. It cost 75 cents. There is a rock holding down the upper right side, where the corner wants to curl.

A well-worn copy of Western Humanities Review, Summer 1961, which included Ursula’s first published short story, “An die Musik.”

Just listened to the first episode with David Mitchell, and it's so lovely! Congratulations, everyone! Thank you so much for letting me help out with such a cool project!

Speaking of @ursulakleguin.com , this is coming soon and I'm honored to be part of it along with @vajra.me, @kierongillen.bsky.social, @nisishawl.bsky.social and many others!

Madly proud to have contributed to this!

I got to read a piece for this, the hugest honor

In Your Spare Time: From the Blog of Ursula K. Le Guin: David Mitchell reads "A Note at the Beginning" David Mitchell kicks things off with Post 0, "A Note at the Beginning," which Ursula posted in October of 2010. The original post can be read at David Mitchell's website is  

In Your Spare Time: From the Blog of Ursula K. Le Guin premieres today!

Our first reader is David Mitchell, the author of Cloud Atlas and Utopia Avenue.

Listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts:

The exhibition runs March 21-July 5, 10am-4pm daily, and includes work by Aistė Ambrazevičiūtė; Alice Bucknell; Audax M. Gawler & Pri Bertucci; Lucio Arese; Marianne Hoffmeister Castro; Nicole Brugger; and Paige Emery.

"...What if we learned to recognize and honor these many forms of communication? Instead of forcing human language onto other beings, Le Guin invites us to listen and learn on their terms."

The exhibition description explains, "Journal of Therolinguistics continues that idea today. We now know forests communicate through underground fungal networks, soil is a living archive of microbial exchange, and plants can sense, signal, and remember...."

The exhibition takes its name and concept from Ursula's short story “The Author of the Acacia Seeds and Other Extracts from the Journal of the Association of Therolinguistics,” which introduced therolinguistics as a fictional field of study.

Journal of Therolinguistics, March 21 - July 5, Descanso Gardens Inset photo is of Bork Bibliothek by Nicole Brugger, and shows a brunette person reaching up to arrange a stick in one of many cubbies showing strange writing and other sticks.

Intercommunications for the Fertile Earth by Paige Emery. A person with long dark hair, dressed in shades of blue, stands in a room surrounded by plants and other things in shades of blue, including a tall stand that holds up a blue piece of glass. Blue bottles in a windowsill hold yet more plants. Even the floor is blue.

Lichen Grammar by Aiste Ambrazeviciute. A statue stands against a pale mauve background; it is done in shades of green and white, with gold along certain edges, and resembles a lichen.

Tree Tongue by Audax M. Gawler and Pri Bertucci. The image has a black background; in the foreground is a shape in many shades of green, with squiggles of all different sorts inside of it. A larger squiggle at the center gives the impression of a skeleton.

Now on view at southern California's Descanso Gardens: Journal of Therolinguistics, an exhibition curated by Oscar Salguero.

www.descansogardens.org/visit/sturt-...

Honored to be a small part of this --

ridiculously excited that this is going to be out in the world, and way way way beyond honored that I got to be part of it. 💖

I was so chuffed to have been asked to take part in this project.

love this whole idea, so happy to have been a part of it!

Very excited that this is going out into the world, and honored-slash-flabbergasted I'm in here among all these illustrious readers.

Also meeeeeeee (this was very fun -- so honoured to be part of this vast project!)

So I got to do this!
💜
Le guin's fiction meant so much to me and I'm so glad I was able to do this

Pard, a tuxedo cat, lounges on the back of the sofa. The podcast logo is overlaid on the photo, showing a drawing of a cat and the title IN YOUR SPARE TIME.

You can listen to a teaser now at the link at the top of this thread. The first episode, which features David Mitchell reading post zero, "A Note at the Beginning," will be available April 8th.

We hope you'll join us, and dozens of readers, as we revisit Ursula's blog.

(Pard says hi.)

Each episode features a different reader of Ursula's text, and each reader adds their own thoughts—about their relationship with Ursula and her work, or about the specific topic of the post, or whatever catches their fancy.

We always wanted to hear a version of the blog that includes every single post, even the ones that are mostly cat pictures. So for the next two years and change, we'll release an episode every Wednesday.

For many years, Ursula kept a blog. Selections from the blog became the book and audiobook No Time to Spare, which includes about a third of the 130 blog posts.

A drawing, by Ursula K. Le Guin, of a loafed-up black cat as seen from behind. The cat's tail curls around the podcast title IN YOUR SPARE TIME. Ursula K. Le Guin's name is at the top of the image, which has a teal background.

Introducing In Your Spare Time: A Podcast of the Blog of Ursula K. Le Guin!

inyoursparetime.libsyn.com

📢 It's the final day to nominate titles for this year's Ursula K. Le Guin Prize!

This is one of the most exciting prizes around - I've discovered new favourites while reading previous shortlists - so don't miss the opportunity to nominate your favourite 2025 releases that meet the criteria.

A mug with the Le Guin Prize logo, holding a spray of lavender, sits next to a stack of books that includes Ursula Whitcher's North Continent Ribbon; Eden Robins' Remember You Will Die; Nghi Vo's The City in Glass; Andrea Hairston's Archangels of Funk; Margaret Killjoy's The Sapling Cage; Vajra Chandrasekera's Rakesfall; Jared Pechacek's The West Passage; and Nalo Hopkinson's Blackheart Man.

Less than two days to go! Nominations for the 2026 Le Guin Prize close at midnight tomorrow, March 31st. If you need an incentive, here's a fun fact: one lucky nominator will be chosen at random to win this gorgeous stack of books—last year's entire shortlist!

www.ursulakleguin.com/prize-nomina...

Finding My Elegy by Ursula K. Le Guin. The cover has dry, tall grass in the foreground, then treetops, then clouds, then in the distance, the lights of a city. The sky is light darkening to purple at the top of the book.

2. The color of anarchy Crows are the color of anarchy and close up they're a little scary. An eye as bright as anything. Having a pet crow would be like having Voltaire on a string.

Finding My Elegy was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2012.

A line drawing of a figure holding up a book, with handwriting next to it that says "you could change a writer's life." Beneath that, text reads "there's one week left to nominate books for the 2026 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction!"

A single nomination can be all it takes—and anyone can nominate work for this prize. The nomination period for the 2026 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction closes at midnight PDT on March 31st!

Learn more and nominate books: www.ursulakleguin.com/prize-nomina...

This 1980 edition of The Left Hand of Darkness was published by Harper & Row, and has cover art by Dan Sneberger. The post-its and bookmarks are Ursula’s.

A copy of The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, with a chartreuse post-it sticking out the side, and a bookmark poking out the top. This edition has cover art that shows a castle in the foreground; behind it are blue, cold mountains, and a pair of mournful-looking eyes hover in the sky above it all.

“If I could have said it non-metaphorically, I would not have written all these words, this novel; and Genly Ai would never have sat down at my desk and used up my ink and typewriter ribbon in informing me, and you, rather solemnly, that the truth is a matter of the imagination.”—Ursula’s 1976 intro