
In recognition of her transformative impact on American literature, Ursula K. Le Guin was the 2014 recipient of the Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. She was the Foundation’s twenty-seventh award recipient. The medal was presented to her by the author Neil Gaiman during the 2014 National Book Awards Ceremony.
For more than forty years, Le Guin defied conventions of narrative, language, character, and genre, as well as transcended the boundaries between fantasy and realism, to forge new paths for literary fiction. Among the nation’s most revered writers of science fiction and fantasy, Le Guin’s fully imagined worlds challenge readers to consider profound philosophical and existential questions about gender, race, the environment, and society. Her boldly experimental and critically acclaimed novels, short stories, and children’s books, written in elegant prose, are popular with millions of readers around the world.