Samuel R. Delany

Samuel R. Delany is an esteemed American author, best known for his works in science fiction and fantasy. Born on April 1, 1942, in New York City, Delany grew up in Harlem as the son of a New York Public Library clerk and the owner of a funeral home. He comes from a prominent black family, with civil rights pioneers Sadie and Bessie Delany being his aunts. Delany's writing has earned him numerous awards, including the Hugo Award twice and the Nebula Award four times.

Delany began his writing career early, publishing his first science fiction novel at the age of 20. Throughout the 1960s, he published nine well-regarded science fiction novels and several prize-winning short stories. His eleventh and most popular novel, "Dhalgren," was published in 1975. In addition to science fiction, Delany has also written experimental fiction, such as "Atlantis: Three Tales" and "Phallos." His four-volume series "Return to Nevèrÿon" is sword-and-sorcery. His works have been widely recognized, with "Babel-17" and "The Einstein Intersection" winning the Nebula Award, and "Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders" and "Dark Reflections" earning the Stonewall Book Award.

Delany has also been an influential figure in academia, serving as a professor at various universities since 1988. He has published several books of criticism, interviews, and essays, and has written a popular creative writing textbook, "About Writing." In his non-fiction book, "Times Square Red, Times Square Blue," Delany draws on personal experience to examine the relationship between the effort to redevelop Times Square and the public sex lives of working-class men in New York City. In 2007, Delany was the subject of a documentary film, "The Polymath, or, The Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman."