Each week, Christine Marie Larsen creates a portrait of a new author for us. Have any favorites you’d love to see immortalized? Let us know

A resident of Portland since 1959, Ursula K. Le Guin is an incredibly influential writer, particularly in science fiction and fantasy. She received multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, among many other distinguished honors — despite experiencing numerous rejections at the beginning of her career. Le Guin gained widespread popularity in the 60s and 70s with her short stories and Left Hand of Darkness, a novel pioneering the feminist science fiction genre. Her influence extends to renowned authors such as Salman Rushdie, Neil Gaiman, and even George RR Martin, who lists her as a highly respected fantasist that impacted his own novels. Le Guin's daring themes — especially that of gender and androgyny in Left Hand of Darkness — admirably transformed her readers' perspectives.