SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. fantasy and science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin died on Monday at her home in Portland, Oregon, her family confirmed Tuesday. She was 88.
"The family of Ursula K. Le Guin is deeply saddened to announce her peaceful death yesterday afternoon," a statement posted on her Twitter account on Tuesday said.
Le Guin is probably best known for the Earthsea series, tales set in a cluster of islands surrounded by unplumbed seas, and "The Left Hand of Darkness," an interplanetary saga.
The acclaimed author stood a towering figure in American fantasy and science fiction not only because she won five Hugo awards - science fiction's highest honor in the United States - but also because as a female writer she challenged traditional ideas of power, gender and race with high fantasy stories.
Many writers mourned her death.
"Her words are always with us. Some of them are written on my soul," tweeted British writer Neil Gaiman. "I missed her as a glorious funny prickly person, & I miss her as the deepest and smartest of the writers, too."
Stephen King said Le Guin is "not just a science fiction writer, (but) a literary icon" in a tweet.
Le Guin won a number of Nebula and Hugo science fiction and fantasy awards. In 2014, she was awarded the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
Born Ursula Kroeber on Oct. 21, 1929 in Berkeley, California, she was educated in Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and then Columbia University, New York.
In 1953 she married historian Charles Le Guin. She published her first novel, "Rocannon's World", in 1966. In a career spanning more that half a century, she wrote 20 novels and scores of short stories.
