The Wave in the Mind: Imagination and the Art of Writing and Reading

Join Ursula K. Le Guin as she turns her writer’s eye to subjects ranging from Tolstoy, Twain, and Tolkien to creativity, feminism, and the joy of imagination.

In this collection of essays, talks, and performance pieces, one of our great literary icons shares profound literary criticism, rare autobiographical writings, and playful musings on gender, beauty, and aging. With keen wit and masterful language, Le Guin is provocative, clear-eyed, and often exhilarating—whether issuing a sly takedown of Hemingway or an impassioned defense of the public library.

The Wave in the Mind is a celebration of the art of writing, the power of reading, and the boundless possibilities of imagination. Brimming over with Le Guin’s fierce and undeniable love for storytelling, it is a call to use the gift we all share: the ability to turn anything into a story.

“All of us have to learn how to invent our lives, make them up, imagine them. We need to be taught these skills; we need guides to show us how. If we don’t, our lives get made up for us by other people.”—Ursula K. Le Guin, from The Wave in the Mind.