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Samuel R Delany Biography |
Samuel Ray "Chip" Delany, Jr. (born April 1, 1942) is a gay Black American writer, academic, and literary critic.
Delany was born and raised in Harlem and attended the Bronx High School of Science. Delany and the poet Marilyn Hacker, who met in high school, were married for several years and have a daughter.
Delany spent 11 years teaching at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a year and a half at the University at Buffalo, and moved to the English Department of Temple University in 2001.
He has written extensively in science fiction and fantasy genres. He is also the author of a number of fictional and autobiographical works that include references to extreme aspects of human sexuality. He has also published several books of literary criticism, with an emphasis on issues in science fiction and other paraliterary genres, comparative literature, and queer theory.
Selected bibliography
Novels:
The Jewels of Aptor (1962)
The Ballad of Beta-2 (1965)
Babel-17 (1966, Nebula Award)
The Einstein Intersection (1967, Nebula Award)
Nova (1968)
Dhalgren (1975)
Triton (1976)
Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand (1984)
The Return to Neveryon series:
Tales of Neveryon (1979)
Neveryona (1983)
Flight from Neveryon (1985)
The Bridge of Lost Desire (1987)
Memoirs and letters:
Heavenly Breakfast
The Motion of Light in Water (1988, a memoir of his experiences as a young gay science fiction writer; winner of the Hugo Award)
Times Square Red, Times Square Blue
"1984" (2000)
Short story collections:
Driftglass (1971)
Distant Stars (1981)
Aye, and Gomorrah (2003)
(Driftglass and Distant Stars include the Hugo Award and Nebula Award-winning "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones." Aye, and Gomorrah is a compilation of all of Delany's short fiction, excepting the Neveryon tales)
Critical works:
The Jewel-hinged Jaw (1977)
The American Shore (1978)
Starboard Wine (1984)
The Straits of Messina (1989)
Silent Interviews (1995)
Longer Views (1996)
Shorter Views (1999)
Other facts
Delany's name is one of the most misspelt in science fiction, with over 60 different spellings in reviews. His publisher Doubleday even misspelt his name on the title page of his book Driftglass as did the organizers of the 16th Balticon where Delany was guest of honour. Ironically, Delany is dyslexic.
The Library of Congress incorrectly recorded his nationality as English.
Delany's aunts were Sadie and Bessie Delany, known as the Delany sisters. They both lived to be over 100 years old, and published Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years. |
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| Samuel R Delany Resources |
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