ABOUT
The project celebrates the 50th anniversary of the publication of Le Guin's award-winning novel The Dispossessed and Le Guin’s time in Beloit as a visiting Mackey Chair in Creative Writing at Beloit College in the spring of 1992. Developed in partnership with the Beloit Public Library and local high schools, “Le Guin at Beloit” will bring community groups together to explore how The Dispossessed imagines different worlds and how we can too—through book discussions, worldbuilding workshops, a traveling oral history exhibit, and a student-produced video. Le Guin’s utopian fiction asks important questions, such as: what is freedom, and how can we imagine more just and equitable worlds? How can people work together to create meaningful community? How can we care for one another while caring for ourselves? How do you deconstruct walls between communities?
Our project is graciously funded by the Wisconsin Humanities, and focuses on building community through reading and worldbuilding. Other worlds may be alien, perhaps confusing, but they can tell us more about our own communities. In Le Guin’s own words, they are ‘thought-experiments’, trying to show us a different life that can be surprisingly accessible and understandable once we search for similarities.
In our project, we hope to inspire all to pick up Le Guin’s book and see the wonder, beauty, and new perspectives it provides. We also hope to inspire young, old and in-between to imagine different worlds and be creative! We will be hosting World-building sessions and discussions throughout the fall! All events are open to the public.
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Be part of a community conversation through participating in community events! See events page to learn more.
About The Dispossessed
¨A bleak moon settled by utopian anarchists, Anarres has long been isolated from other worlds, including its mother planet, Urras—a civilization of warring nations, great poverty, and immense wealth. Now Shevek, a brilliant physicist, is determined to reunite the two planets, which have been divided by centuries of distrust. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the walls of hatred that have kept them apart. To visit Urras—to learn, to teach, to share—will require great sacrifice and risks, which Shevek willingly accepts. But the ambitious scientist's gift is soon seen as a threat, and in the profound conflict that ensues, he must reexamine his beliefs even as he ignites the fires of change.
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Winner of the 1974 Nebula Award for Best Novel
Winner of the 1975 Hugo Award for Best Novel
Winner of the 1975 Locus Award for Best Novel
Winner of the 1975 Jupiter Award for Best Novel
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This compelling story was originally published under the title The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia in 1974 by Harper & Row. Though it is often considered the fifth book of the Hainish Cycle, Ursula maintained that there is no particular cycle or order for the Ekumen novels. It is included in The Hainish Novels and Stories, published in 2017 by Library of America. In 2019, The Folio Society published a hardcover edition with illustrations by David Lupton and an introduction by Brian Attebery.
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On November 17th, 2024, Harper Perennial will publish a 50th anniversary edition of the book, with a new foreword by Karen Joy Fowler.¨
Description from​ Le Guin, U. K. (2014). Ursula K. Le Guin. Ursula K. Le Guin.
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