By the time you hold this issue in your hands, Fifth Estate will have entered into its 45th year of continuous publication! This is no small feat for an all-volunteer run publication operating on a shoestring budget, and it would not be possible without the continued support of our subscribers, sustainers, and readers like you. For this, you have the heartfelt thanks of everyone in the FE collective. That said, if you are not yet a subscriber, please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you compelling stories and well argued essays from FE’s unique perspectives (see our subscription call out on page 37). If you are already a subscriber, consider donating or sponsoring a subscription to a prisoner (FE provides free subscriptions to prisoners).
2010 is shaping up to be an exciting year for FE with new issues (see our call for submissions on page 43), a new and more user-friendly website, and a new working relationship with Political Media Review that will further expand our presence on the web.
In this issue of Fifth Estate, we honor the life and work of Ursula K. Le Guin, who celebrated her 80th birthday in October 2009. In a career spanning only a bit longer than the publication of this magazine, Le Guin has served as aninspiration, not only to us, but to millions of readers around the world who read her fiction, poems, and essays. Highlights of her life and work appear in a brief biographical sketch by Paul J. Comeau (page 10), an interview exclusively for FE probes the inspiration behind some of her most celebrated works (page 12), and we feature a reprint of her 1982 essay “A Non-Euclidean View of California…” with an introduction by John Clark (page 14). Also featured in this issue are a number of critical essays and appreciations of Le Guin’s works by Oshee Eagleheart, Josh Gosicak, Jamie Heckert, and FE collective member Andy Sunfrog.
In addition to our featured section, we have a retrospective by organizer David Solnit on the anniversary of the Seattle WTO Protests, a reaction to Obama’s Nobel Prize win by long time FE collective member Don LaCoss, letters, reviews, and more.
Enjoy the issue, and thanks as always for your support and attention.
— The FE Editorial Collective