She read a New York Times interview with Kazuo Ishiguro about his forthcoming novel, The Buried Giant, which takes place in a non-historic just-post-Arthurian England, in which the author frets that his audience will say that it is fantasy. (To be fair, it contains. among other things, a dragon.) And she was moved to speak.
I’ve said this here before, and I’ll say it again: One of the things I respect most greatly about Le Guin is her steadfast refusal to disavow the genre. More than one author, upon attaining literary respectability, has stashed their propeller beanie and their Spock ears in the far back of the closet . . . all honor, then, to the ones who don’t.
Dr. Doyle's Blog 
Reblogged this on Madhouse Manor.
I once got into a argument with my mother (a non-genre writer) about Margaret Atwood’s desire to not have her work called science fiction. My mother thought it was a practical marketing decision to reach a broader audience. I felt it was snobbery and betrayal of the work that she had built on. Smart people disagree, but I agree with LeGuin.