Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story by Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin has published more than sixty books of fiction, fantasy, science fiction, children’s literature, poetry, drama, criticism, and translation. Among her honors are a National Book Award, a PEN/Malamud Award for short fiction, five Hugo and five Nebula Awards, twenty-one Locus Awards,and the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. She speaks with host David Naimon about her book Steering The Craft.  Completely revised and rewritten to address the challenges and opportunities of the modern era, this guide to the craft of writing lays out ten chapters that address the most fundamental components of narrative, from the sound of language to sentence construction to point of view. Each chapter combines illustrative examples from the global canon with Le Guin’s own witty commentary and an exercise that the writer can do solo or in a group. She also offers a comprehensive guide to working in writing groups, both actual and online.