“If I must go on existing century after century, then once at least I must break out and speak. He didn’t let me say a word. I have to take the word from him. He gave me a long life but a small one. I need room, I need air…”

I’d like to introduce you to Lavinia. Ursula K. Le Guin’s Lavinia.

This collection is an expression of my admiration, affection, even my love for Ursula.
As anyone interested in epics and mythology knows, those stories have always been about men, written by men, centered on them.

The epic tells the story of Aeneas, who, after the fall of Troy, sails across the Mediterranean with his family and fellow warriors in search of a new homeland.
After a long voyage, Aeneas reaches the Tiber River in Italy, where he faces battles with the local tribes. On the banks of the Tiber lies Laurentum, ruled by King Latinus and he has a daughter: Lavinia.

When the poet Virgil wrote The Aeneid, the epic of the Roman Empire, Lavinia was merely a name, a silent figure in the background. Then, almost two thousand years later, Ursula K. Le Guin gave her spirit and form. She showed us how completely different an epic can be when told through a woman’s hand. Ursula lets us experience the pleasure of existing in your own voice, taking the words from poets and male epics.

This collection is my ode to Ursula and Lavinia, and to existing in my own voice.