by Ursula K. Le Guin, with the collage artwork by Clive Knights.

Holiday Bonanza 2024 – Order three paperbound copies, and you’ll receive a complimentary fourth copy.

The Ones Who Walk AwayFrom Omelas is science fiction at its finest, wielding imagination to strike at our deepest questions. It imagines a city, Omelas, in which the people are perfectly happy and prosperous and equal. In short, a utopia. But utopia is hardly believable. As the story proceeds the narrator (possibly Le Guin herself?) pleads with us to believe her description, to believe that it is not too fantastical or far-fetched. Finally, she reveals the city's dark secret: stored away somewhere in a basement is a maltreated child. The people of Omelas are forbidden from rescuing him, or even offering him comfort. Somehow (the reason is beyond their understanding), their happiness depends on the wretched suffering of just one. Do you believe in Omelas now?

This science fiction masterpiece is so powerful because it leaves so much to the imagination of its reader. One reader, celebrated artist Clive Knights, has picked up where Le Guin left off, filling the space around the story in his suite of sixty-one collage artworks collectively entitled, AfterOmelas.

To honor science fiction's vast sweep into the future, and the grounding of private presswork in our past, we have striven to achieve a design aesthetic which balances past and future. Without sacrificing the finesse of private presswork, we have tried to capture the electric power of the genre. Le Guin's haunting story faces the stunning collages of Clive Knights. We are thrilled to present his work alongside Le Guin's. Moreover, as Portland Oregon's only private press, we are honored to bring together our city's most famous writer with one of its most eminent artists. 

We have hoped to fuse these diverse elements into a harmonious whole in The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.

THE SCIENCE FICTION TRILOGY

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas is the second in No Reply's Science Fiction Trilogy, three editions showcasing three of the genre's greatest short stories:

• The Last Question by Isaac Asimov, with the woodcuts of Rockwell Kent

• The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin, with collages by Clive Knights

• The Men Return by Jack Vance, introduced by the author's son and with linocuts by Karol Pomykała

These three stories pushed the frontiers of the genre. They strikingly demonstrate that Science Fiction is not actually the realm of spaceships and time-travel, so much as the realm of metaphysics and our place in the universe. No Reply is proud to present them together, alongside an extraordinary cast of contributors.

THE ARTIST

Clive Knights is a widely celebrated collage artist and director of the Portland State University School of Architecture. For the past year, he has kept a collage sketchbook, responding to the story with art. His interaction with the text is profound, providing a suite of artwork which exemplifies the ability of art to explain the unexplainable and explore what we fail to grasp in words. 

Our edition features eight of Clive's collages, reproduced giclée on archival plates and tipped-in by hand on a secondary paper throughout the book. They are entitled: Jettisoned, size migration, heart beaten, crimson isle, city of ashes, council of idiots, nearly as wide, and figmentation.

It would be a shame, though, for readers to only enjoy the eight collages picked for inclusion. Therefore, No Reply Press is offering a companion volume to The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas entitled AfterOmelas.

This art book features all sixty-one of Clive's collages responding to Le Guin's story, as well as an artist's statement and essay on collage as an artistic medium.AfterOmelas is available to collectors as an add-on.

EDITION NOTES

• The edition is limited to 700 copies and is offered in two states.

Paperbound

• Printed letterpress on Swedish Munken paper.

• Hand-bound in stiff fourfold Mohawk paper wrappers.

• 38 pages, nearly half of which feature Clive Knights' original collages, printed giclée on plates and hand-tipped in. 

• Measuring 6 ½ by 11 inches.

• Numbered in the limited edition, 1 through 350.

Hardbound

• Printed letterpress on mouldmade German Zerkall-bütten papers.

• Hand-bound in a German-style binding; mirror foil tooling over a Japanese cloth spine.

• Monoprint papers (each unique) which cover the facing boards in a single continuous artwork. Please note: Due to the monoprinting process, covers may (and likely will!) vary significantly from the prototype photos shown.

• 38 pages, nearly half of which feature Clive Knights' original collages, printed giclée on plates and hand-tipped in. 

• Measuring 6 ½ by 11 inches.

• Numbered in the limited edition, 1 through 350.

• An optional lucite slipcase can be added on.

Companion Art Book: After Omelas

• Printed offset on archival pearlescent stock. 

• Roughly 80 pages, including sixty-one collage artworks, an artist's statement, and an essay about the importance of collage as an artistic medium.

• Copies reserved through this campaign will be signed by the artist.