A Room of LeGuin’s Own

Ursula K. LeGuin has been one of my favorite authors since I read the EarthSea Trilogy as a little kid (it’s grown beyond a trilogy since). As an adult, such works as  The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, The Lathe of Heaven, and Lavinia entranced me.  Now her house in Portland is being turned into a writer’s residency (with stipend). You can write where she wrote! The residency is being run by Literary Arts, a Portland non-profit. The AP notes:

No date has been set for when the residency will begin. Literary Arts has launched a fundraising campaign for maintaining the house and for operating an office in town.

The Le Guins lived in a 19th century house designed out of a Sears & Roebuck catalog, and the author’s former studio looks out on a garden, a towering redwood tree planted decades ago by the family, and, in the distance, Mount St. Helens. Downes-Le Guin does not want the house to seem like a museum, or a time capsule, but expects that reminders of his mother, from her books to her rock collection, will remain.

…

According to Literary Arts, residents will be chosen by an advisory council that will include “literary professionals” and a Le Guin family member. Writers “will be asked to engage with the local community in a variety of literary activities, such as community-wide readings and workshops.” The residency will be year-round, with a single writer at a time living in the house. The length of individual residencies will vary, as some writers may have family or work obligations that would limit their availability. Downes-Le Guin says he wants the residency to feel inclusive, available to a wide range of authors, and selective.

“We don’t want it just to be for authors who already have had residencies elsewhere,” he says. “But we’ll want applicants to demonstrate that they’re seriously engaged in the work. We want people who will make the most of this.”