The Unreal and the Real (book)

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The Unreal and the Real
AuthorUrsula K. Le Guin
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction, fantasy
Published2012 (Small Beer Press as two volumes), 2016 (Saga Press)
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint
Pages626

The Unreal and the Real: The Selected Short Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin is a collection of short stories by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin.[1] First issued by Small Beer Press in 2012 as a two-volume set, it was republished as a single volume by Saga Press in 2016. It was included in the boxed set with The Found and the Lost in the boxed set The Selected Short Fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin, which was shortlisted for the 2018 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award.[2]

The collection was a finalist for the 2014 Ken Kesey Award for Fiction.[2][3]

The first volume is titled Where on Earth, and the introduction is titled "Choosing and Dividing. The second volume is titled Outer Space, Inner Lands with the introduction "The Obligatory Bit about Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Genre."


List of stories

Volume One


Title Time of first publication First edition publisher/publication Summary Citations
"Brothers and Sisters" Summer 1976 The Little Magazine, vol. 10 A short story in Orsinia. [4]
"A Week in the Country" Summer 1976 The Little Magazine, vol. 9 A short story in Orsinia. [4]
"Unlocking the Air" 1990 Playboy
"Imaginary Countries" Winter 1973 The Harvard Advocate A short story in Orsinia. [4]
"The Diary of the Rose" 1976 Future Power, edited by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann. New York City, Random House. [5]
"Direction of the Road" 1973 Orbit 12, edited by Damon Knight This story is a fantasy written from the perspective of a conscious tree as it stands beside a road. Le Guin acknowledged that it was inspired by a tree in the real world. [6]
"The White Donkey" 1980 TriQuarterly No. 49 [5][7]
"Gwilan's Harp" 1977 Redbook [8][9][10][11]
"May's Lion" 1983 The Little Magazine, vol. 14, [12]
“Buffalo Gals” 1970
"Horse Camp" August 1986 The New Yorker [13]
"The Lost Children" January 1996 Thirteenth Moon, edited by Jacob Weisman. Tachyon Corporation, place of publication unknown. [14][15]
The Water is Wide 1976 Portland, Pendragon Press [16]
"Texts" 1990 American Short Fiction, as part of the PEN Syndication Fiction Project. Previously collected in Searoad (1991). Klatsand. [17]
"Sleepwalkers" 1991 Mississippi Mud. Previously collected in Searoad (1991). Klatsand. [17]
"Hand, Cup, Shell" 1989 The Southwest Review Autumn 1989. Previously collected in Searoad (1991). Klatsand. [17]
"Ether OR" November 1995 Asimov's Science Fiction, November 1995 issue. Also stylized as Ether, Or. Reprinted in Unlocking the Air and Other Stories (1996). [17]
"Half Past Four" September 1987 The New Yorker [18][19]


Volume Two

Title Time of first publication First edition publisher/publication Summary Citations
"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" 1973 New Dimensions III, edited by Robert Silverberg This piece describes a town whose citizens are universally happy, but whose happiness depends on a single child being in perpetual torment. Le Guin wrote that the story was inspired by a passage from the philosopher William James. [20][21]
"Semley's Necklace" September 1964 Amazing Stories The first piece of Hainish Cycle fiction written by Le Guin. Previously published as "The Dowry of Angyar", and used as the prologue of Rocannon's World. The story, inspired by the Norse legend of the Brísingamen, tells of an impoverished bride that journeys off-world to retrieve a precious necklace that once belonged to her family. [22]
"Nine Lives" November 1969 Playboy, vol. 16 Collected in The Wind's Twelve Quarters. [21]
"Mazes" 1975 Epoch, edited by Roger Elwood and Robert Silverberg. New York City, Berkley Publishing Corporation. Collected in The Compass Rose. [5]
"First Contact with the Gorgonids" January 1992 Omni, vol. 14. Previously collected in A Fisherman of the Inland Sea. [23][24]
"The Shobies' Story" 1990 Universe 1, edited by Terry Carr. New York City, Ace Books. Previously collected in A Fisherman of the Inland Sea (1994). [25][26]
"Betrayals" 1994 The Blue Motel Previously collected in Four Ways to Forgiveness and Five Ways to Forgiveness. [27]
"The Matter of Seggri" Spring 1994 Crank! magazine Previously collected in The Birthday of the World (2002) and The Found and the Lost (2016). [28][29]
"Solitude" December 1994 The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol. 87 Previously collected in The Birthday of the World (2002). [29]
"The Wild Girls" March 2002 Asimov's Science Fiction, March 2002 issue. "Nine Lives" is a science fiction story, in which a group of human clones join a two-person exploratory party on a remote planet. [30][31]
“The Fliers of Gy” November 2000 Published online on Sci Fi Printed for the first time in Changing Planes (2002), where it was titled "The Fliers of Gy". [31][32]
"The Silence of the Asonu" 1998 Orion, under the title The Wisdom of the Asonu, [33]
"The Ascent of the North Face" 1983 Isaac Asimov's Space of Her Own, edited by Shawna McCarthy. New York City, Davis Publications. Previously collected in A Fisherman of the Inland Sea (1994). [34][35]
"The Author of the Acacia Seeds and Other Extracts from the Journal of the Association of Therolinguistics" 1974 Fellowship of the Stars, edited by Terry Carr. New York City, Simon & Schuster. Collected in The Compass Rose (1982), Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences (1987). [36][5]
"The Wife's Story" 1982 The Compass Rose, Pendragon Press. [37]
"The Rule of Names" April 1964 Fantastic magazine, vol. 13 Reprinted in The Wind's Twelve Quarters (1975) and The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition (2018). [21]
"Small Change" 1981 Tor zu den Sternen, edited by Peter Wilfert. Munich, Goldmann Verlag. Previously collected in The Compass Rose (1982). [5]
"The Poacher" 1993 Xanadu, edited by Jane Yolen. New York City, Tor Books. Previously collected in Unlocking the Air and Other Stories (1996). [38][39]
"Sur" February 1982 The New Yorker Previously collected in The Compass Rose (1982). [5][40]
"She Unnames Them" January 1985 The New Yorker Previously collected in Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences (1987). [41]

References

  1. Carroll, Tobias (December 23, 2012). "LeGuin's short stories are out of this world". Star Tribune. pp. E12. Retrieved June 11, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Ursula K. Le Guin — The Unreal and the Real". Ursula K. Le Guin. Retrieved June 11, 2026.
  3. Baker, Jeff (January 6, 2014). "Oregon Book Award finalists announced: Ursula K. Le Guin, Mary Szybist lead the list". oregonlive. Retrieved June 11, 2026.
  4. Le Guin 2016, p. 442.
  5. Le Guin, Ursula K. (2015). The Compass Rose. London: Orion. Story credits. ISBN 978-1-4732-1437-8.
  6. Levin, Jeff (November 1975). "Ursula K. Le Guin: A Select Bibliography". Science Fiction Studies. 2 (3): 204–208. doi:10.1525/sfs.2.3.0204. Retrieved July 8, 2018.
  7. Dozois, Gardner; Dann, Jack, eds. (March 25, 2013). Unicorns I. Wake Forest, North Carolina: Baen Publishing Enterprises. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-62579-117-7.
  8. Pederson, Jay P. (1996). St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers. Detroit, Michigan: St. James Press. p. 558. ISBN 978-1-55862-179-4.
  9. Le Guin, Ursula K. (1981). Gwilan's Harp. Northridge, California: Lord John Press. ISBN 978-0-935716-11-5.
  10. Rubery, Matthew (November 14, 2016). The Untold Story of the Talking Book. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 336. ISBN 978-0-674-54544-1.
  11. Le Guin 2016b, p. 718.
  13. Le Guin, Ursula (August 18, 1986). "Horse Camp". The New Yorker. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
  14. "Publication: Thirteenth Moon, January 1996". The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
  15. Le Guin 2016b, p. 634.
  16. Nicholls & Clute 2018.
  17. Le Guin 2016b.
  19. Le Guin, Ursula (September 21, 1987). "Half Past Four". The New Yorker. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
  20. Bucknall 1981, pp. 140–141. sfn error: no target: CITEREFBucknall1981 (help)
  21. White 1999, p. 123.
  22. Lindow, Sandra J. (2012). Dancing the Tao: Le Guin and Moral Development. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 258. ISBN 978-1-4438-4302-7.
  24. "Publication: Omni, January 1992". The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
  25. "The Shobies' Story". Nebula Awards. Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
  26. Universe 1. OCLC 1948605.
  28. Erlich 2009, p. 637. sfn error: no target: CITEREFErlich2009 (help)
  29. Le Guin, Ursula K. (March 4, 2003). The Birthday of the World: And Other Stories. New York City: HarperCollins. p. 376. ISBN 978-0-06-050906-4.
  30. "Publication: Asimov's Science Fiction, March 2002". The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
  32. "Title: The Flyers of Gy: An Interplanetary Tale". The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
  33. Stephenson-Payne, Phil. "The FictionMags Index". Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections. Retrieved April 13, 2025.
  34. "Title: The Ascent of the North Face". The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
  35. Smith, Curtis C. (1986). Twentieth-century science-fiction writers. London: St. James Press. ISBN 978-0-912289-27-4.
  36. Le Guin 1979, p. 247. sfn error: no target: CITEREFLe_Guin1979 (help)
  37. "The Wife's Story". The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
  38. Ashley, Michael; Ashley, Mike; Contento, William, eds. (1995). The Supernatural Index: A Listing of Fantasy, Supernatural, Occult, Weird, and Horror Anthologies. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 922. ISBN 978-0-313-24030-0.
  39. "Publication: Xanadu". The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  40. Le Guin, Ursula (January 25, 1982). "Sur". The New Yorker. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
  41. Le Guin, Ursula (January 14, 1985). "She Unnames Them". The New Yorker. Retrieved July 10, 2018.

Sources