Stories | Paperback | The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the National Book Award, the Kafka Award, and the Pushcart Prize, Ursula K. Le Guin is renowned for her lyrical writing, rich characters, and diverse worlds. The Wind's Twelve Quarters collects seventeen of her powerful stories and is a superb retrospective of her own best short fiction. Each story includes a brief introduction by Le Guin, setting it in perspective or giving its background, and the collection includes a foreword by the author describing her experience and approach to writing. The stories range widely from fantasy and intriguing scientific concepts, to medieval settings and the future, but all of them are concerned with human values, relationships, and survival under all kinds of stress and turmoil.