The Compass Rose
Encyclopedia
The Compass Rose is a 1982 collection of short stories
by Ursula K. Le Guin
. It is organized into sections on the theme of directions, though not strictly compass
-related as the title implies.
It won the Locus Award
for best Single Author Collection in 1983.
Nadir
North
East
Zenith
West
South
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books, essays, and short stories, notably in fantasy and science fiction...
. It is organized into sections on the theme of directions, though not strictly compass
Compass
A compass is a navigational instrument that shows directions in a frame of reference that is stationary relative to the surface of the earth. The frame of reference defines the four cardinal directions – north, south, east, and west. Intermediate directions are also defined...
-related as the title implies.
It won the Locus Award
Locus Award
The Locus Award is a literary award established in 1971 and presented to winners of Locus magazine's annual readers' poll. Currently, the Locus Awards are presented at an annual banquet...
for best Single Author Collection in 1983.
Contents
- Preface
Nadir
Nadir
The nadir is the direction pointing directly below a particular location; that is, it is one of two vertical directions at a specified location, orthogonal to a horizontal flat surface there. Since the concept of being below is itself somewhat vague, scientists define the nadir in more rigorous...
- "'The Author of the Acacia Seeds' and Other Extracts from the Journal of the Association of Therolinguistics" (1974, Fellowship of the Stars)
- "The New Atlantis" (1975, The New Atlantis)
- "Schrödinger's Cat" (1974, Universe 5)
North
North
North is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.North is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west.By convention, the top side of a map is north....
- "Two Delays on the Northern Line" (1979, The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
) - "SQ" (1978, Cassandra Rising)
- "Small Change" (1981, Tor zu den Sternen)
East
East
East is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.East is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of west and is perpendicular to north and south.By convention, the right side of a map is east....
- "The First Report of the Shipwrecked Foreigner to the Kadanh of Derb" (1978, Antaeus)
- "The Diary of the Rose" (1976, Future Power)
- "The White Donkey" (1980, TriQuarterly)
- "The Phoenix"
Zenith
Zenith
The zenith is an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the imaginary celestial sphere. "Above" means in the vertical direction opposite to the apparent gravitational force at that location. The opposite direction, i.e...
- "Intracom" (1974, Stopwatch)
- "The Eye Altering" (1974, The Altered I)
- "Mazes" (1975, EpochEpoch (magazine)Epoch is a three-times-a-year American literary magazine founded in 1947 and published by Cornell University. The widely respected magazine has published well-known authors and award-winning work including stories reprinted in The Best American Short Stories series and poems later included in The...
) - "The Pathways of Desire" (1979, New Dimensions Science Fiction, No. 9)
West
West
West is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.West is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of east and is perpendicular to north and south.By convention, the left side of a map is west....
- "Gwilan's Harp" (1977, RedbookRedbookRedbook is an American women's magazine published by the Hearst Corporation. It is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines.-History:...
) - "Malheur County" (1979, Kenyon Review)
- "The Water Is Wide" (1976, Pendragon Press (chapbook))
South
South
South is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.South is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to east and west.By convention, the bottom side of a map is south....
- "The Wife's StoryThe Wife's Story"The Wife's Story" is a short story found in Ursula K. Le Guin's 1982 collection The Compass Rose. It describes a wife's retrospective of what she should have seen in her husband beofre it was "too late." She describes suspicious behaviors that lead the reader to understand that he is a werewolf...
" - "Some Approaches to the Problem of the Shortage of Time" (1979, OmniOmni (magazine)OMNI was a science and science fiction magazine published in the US and the UK. It contained articles on science fact and short works of science fiction...
, as "Where Does the Time Go?") - "Sur" (1982, The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
)