There’s something endearing about being asked to curate this “words that matter” issue: the name of this very newsletter echoes my favorite essay collection, Ursula Le Guin’s Words Are My Matter. It’s a 300-page book full of wisdom worn lightly — and humor, and honesty, and bravery. An anthology of essays, book reviews, and diary entries (I’ve recommended it to everyone around me non-stop for five years now, and I’m still surprised and delighted each time I turn a page). I carry it everywhere and treat it as a kind of low-calorie holy bible (?). When the bigger questions lodge in my mind — what is a woman? what is language? what is a story? what is the life like when a female intellectual raise three kids, keep the house clean, utter many words all day long, and keep a sane relationship with her partner — all at the same time? — this is where I find answers.