Ursula Le Guin's science fiction novella, The Word for World is Forest, has the unusual distinction of having been published for the first time twice; the first time it appeared was in 1972, in an anthology of similar writings entitled Again, Dangerous Visions. It's second debut came four years later when it was published as a novella in its own right.
This novella is part of Le Guin's Hainish Cycle, a series of stories set in the future where different civilizations orbit the earth and are just beginning to meet each other for the first time. This particular novella focuses on a military logging colony under the rule of colonists from earth who have made slaves out of the planet's native people. Eventually the people are driven to revolt, which is out of character, but a result of the appalling and violent way in which they are treated. This changes the people forever; on one hand they managed to rid themselves of the regime, but on the other, their formerly peaceful citizens are now familiar with mass violence.
The main theme of the novella is the negative effects of colonialism. This was inspired by Le Guin's own firmly-held anti-Vietnam War opinions. Le Guin is a pacifist and participated in several anti-war demonstrations. She was also a vocal member of the anti-nuclear weapons movement. She was a proponent of consensus government and this is a subject that she explored in the Hainish novels.
Although the novella was largely well received, it is not amongst critics' favorite Le Guin novellas, because it comes across as somewhat "teachy" and none of the characters are developed well enough for the reader to decide whether they like them or not. For this work, Le Guin was nominated for both a Nebula Award and a Locus Award, and the novella won the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1973, the same year that it was a finalist for the prestigious National Book Award.
Over the course of her sixty year career, Le Guin published more than twenty novels, and one hundred short stories, as well as poetry and children's books. Le Guin is considered to be a science fiction author, although it is a classification that she generally doesn't appreciate, preferring instead to call herself an "American novelist." She passed away in January 2018.
