Ursula K. Le Guin is one of the finest writers of our time. Her books have attracted millions of devoted readers and won many awards, including the National Book Award, the Hugo and Nebula Awards and a Newbery Honor. Among her novels, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed and the six books of Earthsea have attained undisputed classic status; and her recent series, the Annals of the Western Shore, has won her the PEN Center USA Children's literature award and the Nebula Award for best novel. In 2014 Ursula Le Guin was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. She lived in Portland, Oregon, until she passed away in January 2018. Read… more at http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/le_guin_ursula_k
David Mitchell was born in 1969 and his first novel, GHOSTWRITTEN, was published by Sceptre in 1999 and won the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. His second novel, NUMBER9DREAM (2001) was shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He was chosen as one of Granta's 20 Best Young British Novelists 2003. His latest novel is entitled, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. He has also written Black Swan Green and Cloud Atlas, which was made into a major motion picture film in 2012.