Photo: Marian Wood Kolisch, Oregon State University, CC BY-SA 2.0 — Source
American author who elevated science fiction and fantasy into literature of the highest order. Her novels 'The Left Hand of Darkness' (1969), exploring a genderless society, and 'The Dispossessed' (1974), examining anarchism and capitalism, remain masterworks of philosophical fiction. Her Earthsea series brought moral depth to fantasy comparable to Tolkien. She won multiple Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards and the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. A fierce advocate for writers' rights and opponent of corporate publishing, she challenged the literary establishment's dismissal of genre fiction until her death in 2018.
Source: Ursula K. Le Guin Official Site