Samuel R. Delany
A Black gay writer who transformed science fiction – and wrote frankly about sex, race and New York’s Times Square.
Samuel R. Delany grew up in Harlem, the son of a funeral director. He was dyslexic but a gifted student and published his first novel at 20. In 1961 he married the poet Marilyn Hacker; their open marriage lasted almost twenty years, and both had relationships with people of their own gender.
In the 1960s Delany became one of the most celebrated authors of the “New Wave” of science fiction, with novels such as “Babel-17” and “The Einstein Intersection”, both of which won the Nebula Award. His novel “Dhalgren” (1975), set in a ruined American city, sold over a million copies. His books explore language, sexuality, race and power, and often depict gay and bisexual characters as a matter of course.
He also wrote frankly about his own sexuality, for example in his memoir “The Motion of Light in Water” (1988), and in “Times Square Red, Times Square Blue” (1999), an essay about the cinemas and sexual encounters in Times Square before its redevelopment.
Delany taught literature at several universities. In 2013 he was named a Grand Master of science fiction. He lives in Philadelphia with his long-time partner Dennis Rickett.