The Earthsea books are wonderful (not least because fantasy novels with a cast of characters who are almost all brown are sadly incredibly rare), but perhaps not the best place to start - they're great kids (& grownups!) books, but you do need to start at the beginning and I think you'd be more in tune with her second run at the series. Maybe one day you'll get to hitchhike along with a child who is reading them. *g*

I second The Left Hand of Darkness, although my absolute favourite is Always Coming Home - which is a very strange beast: a patchwork ethnography of a future society, which has one novella threaded through it, but also short stories, poems, recipes, myths, maps, jokes, essays, personal histories, all jumbled together to make up a picture of a very different world.

She also writes fabulous short stories - it is probably her strongest suit.

But mostly : HEE! Yay! You are writing!