Julie Phillips

When I wrote this a year ago I had no idea how bad things would get. Today, eight years after she left us, I'm trying to follow Ursula's advice: write and worry. Write and act. Worry and keep writing. lithub.com/the-way-of-w...

Write what you know

Congratulations to Pip Adam, recipient of the 2026 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction for Audition!

In my latest for Reactor, I explore the history of nonbinary pronouns in science fiction, and why all my books have nonbinary characters.

I'm looking forward to doing this!

Sheree Reneé Thomas's The Tongue I Dream In brings together poems, short stories, and nonfiction writing to celebrate Black excellence and her works' communal cosmology: a collection @readingtheend.bsky.social calls "a particular treat"

Waar The Dispossessed van @ursulakleguin.com over gaat en waarom het haar lievelingsboek is, door striptekenaar @barbarastok.bsky.social. @groene.nl

Our next category, Outstanding Novel: Young Adult highlights novel-length (40k+ words) works intended for the young adult audience Congratulations to THEY BLOOM AT NIGHT by Trang Thanh Tran (Bloomsbury YA) #2026IgnyteAwards

As ever, we begin with the #2026IgnyteAwards winner in Outstanding Novel - Adult for novel-length (40k words+) works intended for an adult audience Congratulations to THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER (Saga Press/Titan Books) by Stephen Graham Jones!

Hello and happy Fullmetal Alchemist Day! We're about ready to get started with this year's winner announcement A very special thanks to our first-ever sponsors: @bcsmagazine.bsky.social, @edmontonin2030.bsky.social, @laworldcon.bsky.social , and @revmindi.bsky.social ! #2026IgnyteAwards

Vensterpoesje!

When even store managers see the benefit of workers organizing unions!

I decided I needed an #ursulakleguin benefit T-shirt from @pmpress.bsky.social, because of the cats. Then I liked it so much I got another one by the same artist, @nobonzo.bsky.social. And now I'm feeling pleased with myself, so here are pictures.

Wonderful #Tolkien news! Westminster Abbey has announced that J.R.R. Tolkien will be honoured with a memorial in Poets' Corner. I've known about this project for some years + was privileged to be consulted during its development. Great to see it made public! www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-news/a...

Get 20% off this new title from @shereereneethomas.bsky.social with code SEPTEMBER thru 10/1 here: pmpress.org/index.php?l=...

Lord grant me the confidence of a guy who @s William Gibson to answer a question Gibson wasn't asking about AI /wintermute expression

The 2026 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story or Comic goes to A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel, written by Ursula K. Le Guin, adapted and art by Fred Fordham (Clarion Books; Walker UK).

Deadline moved to 7 September!

Our cats, photographed much better than I can by @annebillson.bsky.social

Podcast over @ursulakleguin.com gemaakt voor @groene.nl, met journalist Daphné Dupont-Nivet en de geweldige Stephan Sanders. Zij heeft Hij kende haar werk eerst niet, maar werd meteen fan. www.groene.nl/podcasts/den...

While Miller’s abuse, Clancy’s trial, and Smith’s tradwife back-pedaling may seem like very different stories, they’re all connected by one common thread: the outraged response from women, especially mothers.

I saw the Lyres in a club in Seattle in about 1987, back in my misspent youth. They had a big fight onstage and Conolly played the rest of the set with a bloody nose. It was a small window into something very unhappy behind the music.

Ursula K. Le Guin on loving a man in a uniform, read by my friend @michelleruizkeil.bsky.social

It's a map of the continent of AI-ia, which includes the countries AI-tania, Côte d'AI and the Central Republique of AI.

Yes.

A long-ago email exchange with @ursulakleguin.com: >> But then sometimes I wonder very much if I have a Secret Life. > Someone who tests off the scale for introversion has no secret life? The triple-locked box in the secret compartment could be empty! I miss her.

This is a very Le Guinian thought.

Delighted to be chairing the Otherwise Award jury this year. To recommend works to the jury, the form is here: otherwiseaward.org/2026/07/intr...

"I repeat: in order for a book to exist, it is sufficient to be possible"

I wish I could be there!

Meanwhile, from Sweden, where they watch this version of Ivanhoe every New Year's Day, "Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert has wielded his lance for the last time".

To everyone whose email I haven't answered because I'm over my ears in a book:

This week on In Your Spare Time, author @rebeccacampbell.bsky.social reads post 11, "The Tree," from January of 2011. This post is Ursula's lovely eulogy for a Christmas tree: "A real Christmas tree, a cut tree, is a ritual sacrifice. Better not to deny the fact, but to accept and ponder it."

The shortlist for the 2026 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction has been announced! Congratulations to everyone!!!

A gem from the archive: a poster for Ursula's first public talk, at Portland State University in 1971. Were you there? If you attended any of Ursula's earliest events, we'd love to hear about the experience! Thank you to @julie-phillips.com for the image!

Yes. Welcome to my world.

Please god let this close the portal to Hell the Cubs opened in 2016

I heard @bluejo.bsky.social read an excerpt from this two years ago. It was strange and beautiful and I'm excited to read it.

So this is background for “The Screwfly Solution” - an unforgettable short story by James Tiptree, Jr. Highly recommend her biography by @julie-phillips.com

This week on In Your Spare Time, Molly Gloss reads post 8, "The Sissy Strikes Back," from November 2010. "I’ve lost faith in the saying 'You’re only as old as you think you are' ever since I got old," Ursula begins in this post about aging, and who exactly it's "for."

Love that nearly all the BTL comments on the HOW TO ROB A BANK trailer are people ̶g̶o̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶w̶o̶w̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶l̶o̶o̶k̶s̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶e̶x̶c̶i̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶h̶e̶i̶s̶t̶ ̶m̶o̶v̶i̶e̶ grousing about amazon's labour practices and mistreatment of its warehouse employees.

Damn! I got all excited for a minute, thinking he was referring an out nonbinary polyamorous space-faring Democratic Senator I didn't know about....