Le Guin, Ursula K.: Into the Desert, Across the Ice

Winter texts, paperback

Publication Date: June 1, 2021

Publisher Marketing: 3 Essential tales from legendary writer, Ursula K. Le Guin

"Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight"

"She Unnames Them"

"Sur"

After the publication of the Winter texts edition of Hernes I sought to collect more of Le Guin's writings into accessible and artistically rendered editions. So many of her stories get lost in massive anthologies. This collection is made up of my three favorite of her short stories. Each digging deeply into many of Le Guin's essential questions, each using a different genre, each investigating the use and power of names and naming.

Together I feel like they represent the best of Le Guin's short fiction. And when put in dialogue, they elucidate larger themes and undercurrents in our own lives.

Each story is a journey outwards physically and inwards metaphorically. The cycle of return playing out in fable, parable, and history.

Out in the distance, when we start to hear the echoes of our own being, and the names we are accustomed to are stripped away, we bear witness to something unnameable and real.