Lessons and Learnings from Crafting with Ursula
Ursula K Le Guin, a remarkable mind and one that I count myself fortunate to have been able to learn (and continue to learn) from. Through interacting directly with her writing, her interviews and the interpretation of her words by others. I have had the opportunity to glean lessons from the ideas that she brought into the world to help us navigate it.
Her work, words, and worlds have shaped my thinking through time. She was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction that share the form of novels and deeply captivating short stories.
There are many quotes from her, that I have taken note of and one of my best follows on Twitter is the bot that shares extracts from her work every hour. One of my favourite quotes is the one below, because it reminds me of the need to relearn things continuous and to challenge assumptions that we might hold when contexts are deepened or expanded.
“To use the world well, to be able to stop wasting it and our time in it, we need to relearn our being in it.”
I find it fascinating to interact with Le Guin’s thinking through the lens that other great minds offer. This translation offers another layer of nuance to the lessons that Le Guin shares in her work. Incredibly Between the Covers put together a remarkable twelve part series — Learning from others, Unpacking the minds, words and thinking of Ursula Le Guin.
An immense thank you to the team from Between the Covers that made these conversations possible and provided access to allow others to learn from incredible people through the dialogues.
If you’re interested, here are the twelve episodes that were featured under the theme of Crafting with Ursula.
Crafting with Ursula: Niel Gaiman on Word Magic & The Power of Telling Stories
Crafting with Ursula: Gabrielle Bellot on The Power of Names & Naming
Crafting with Ursula: Maria Dahvana Headley on Feminist Translation & Classical Retellings
Crafting with Ursula: Lidia Yuknavitch on The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction
Crafting with Ursula: Julie Phillips on the Writing Mother
Crafting with Ursula: William Alexander on Writing
Crafting with Ursula: Kim Stanley Robison on Ambiguous Utopias
Crafting with Ursula: Adrienne mares brown on Social Justin & Science Fiction
Crafting with Ursula: Karen Joy Fowler on Experimental Women, Animals, Science & Story
Crafting with Ursula: Isaac Yuen on Writing Nature and Nature Writing
Crafting with Ursula: Molly Gloss on Writing Clear, Clean Line
Crafting with Ursula: Becky Chambers on Creating Aliens & Alien Cultures
