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Storytellers Spotlight

Registration opens in September! Check back soon. 
Reading Ursula K. Le Guin: Writing New Worlds
December 5, 2025
10 am – 2:30 pm Eastern Time • Online

Join us for the second session of the Storytellers Spotlight Series,
a new online event celebrating authors whose writing has earned a cherished place in our classrooms. 

Storytellers Spotlight 2025: Writing New Worlds
 

The 2025 Storytellers Spotlight is an online workshop. Participants read and write together in small, interactive workshop groups, drawing on IWT's writing-rich pedagogies to explore some of Le Guin's most celebrated works.

This December, we will turn to the groundbreaking work of Ursula K. Le Guin, a Hugo- and Nebula-award winning author whose speculative fiction blends philosophy, anthropology, and feminism. As noted in The Paris Review, “No single work did more to upend the genre’s conventions than The Left Hand of Darkness.”  In the unforgettable line “The king was pregnant,” Le Guin’s 1969 novel distills the otherness of a world where all humans are androgynous and genderfluid. Through the eyes of a visitor, readers are confronted with their own preconceptions about gender roles. In the jarring fairy-tale-like story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” Le Guin likewise illuminates chilling social practices that are quietly accepted as givens. In this workshop, we will reflect upon the contemporary resonance of Le Guin’s fiction, touching also on her essays on science fiction and feminism, as we explore the power of worldbuilding as a revelatory mirror to our own world.

Texts: The Left Hand of Darkness (excerpts), “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” and other selections.

Registration + Fees

  • Tuition
    Fee: $399

    Early Bird Fee: $350
    Must register by November 5; tuition must be paid in full prior to workshop.

    Cancelation policy: No refunds will be issued for cancelations made later than one week before the workshop.
  • Credit and Scholarship Opportunities
    CTLE Credit
    All Bard IWT workshops are Continuing Teacher and Leader Education approved in New York State. Storytellers Spotlight is 4 CTLE hours. 

    The Teresa Vilardi Scholarship
    IWT welcomes scholarship applications from those studying to become teachers (i.e., those registered in Bard’s MAT Program or another accredited program in education) and in-service teachers with limited professional development funds.