New Releases by Samuel R. Delany

Bread & Wine is Samuel R. Delany''s autobiographical graphic novel about how he met a homeless man, Dennis, who became his partner.

In "Captives of the Flame," Samuel R. Delany delves into the complexities of human relationships and identity, set against a richly imagined backdrop of an interstellar society. The narrative unfolds in Delany''s signature prose style, which seamlessly blends lyrical elegance with speculative inquiry, challenging conventional themes of love, power, and societal constructs. This novel not only reflects the author''s groundbreaking approach to science fiction but also engages with philosophical undertones, inviting readers to contemplate the nature of freedom and captivity, both literal and metaphorical. Samuel R. Delany, a towering figure in speculative fiction, has often drawn from his own experiences as a Black LGBTQ+ man to explore themes of marginalization and cultural intersection. His extensive body of work, ranging from novels to literary criticism, showcases his unique voice and intellect, establishing him as a notable critic of societal norms. Delany''s keen awareness of the intricate dynamics within relationships and his innovative world-building techniques shine brightly in this novel, showcasing his literary evolution and depth. "Captives of the Flame" is not merely a tale of adventure but a profound inquiry into the human condition. I highly recommend this book to readers interested in exploring multifaceted narratives that challenge perceptions of identity and belonging while delving into the philosophical depths of freedom and societal constraints. In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience: - A succinct Introduction situates the work''s timeless appeal and themes. - The Synopsis outlines the central plot, highlighting key developments without spoiling critical twists. - A detailed Historical Context immerses you in the era''s events and influences that shaped the writing. - A thorough Analysis dissects symbols, motifs, and character arcs to unearth underlying meanings. - Reflection questions prompt you to engage personally with the work''s messages, connecting them to modern life. - Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance. - Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.

Samuel R. Delany is an acclaimed writer of literary theory, queer literature, and fiction. His works have fundamentally altered the terrain of science fiction (SF) through their formally consummate and materially grounded explorations of difference. This anthology of essays, talks, and interviews addresses topics such as sex and sexuality, race, power, literature and genre, as well as Herman Melville, John Ashbery, Willa Cather, Junot Diaz, and others. The second of two volumes, this book gathers more than twenty-five pieces on films, poetry, and science fiction. This diverse collection displays the power of a towering literary intelligence. It is a rich trove of essays, as well as a map to the mind of one of the great writers of our time.

"Gathers the writings of award-winning author Samuel R. Delany on a wide array of topics related to writing, science fiction, race, sexuality, literature, and literary theory"--

This Stonewall Book Award-winning novel traces the life and unrealized dreams of a gay African American poet. A meditation on isolation and sexual repression, it also explores the frustrations intrinsic to artistic life.

Celebrate classic novels of the New Wave era of sci-fi with this second collectable science fiction anthology from Library of America. Presenting 4 underrated science fiction classics from a tumultuous time in American history—including works by iconic Black author Samuel R. Delany and feminist Joanna Russ. In R. A. Lafferty’s utterly idiosyncratic and uncategorizable Past Master (1968), Renaissance philosopher Thomas More is summoned to Golden Astrobe in the year 2535: Can he save the planet’s troubled utopia from its soulless technological perfection and ensure the survival of the faith? Joanna Russ introduces one of SF’s first and most engaging female adventurers in her taut and edgy debut novel Picnic on Paradise (1968): the tough, sardonic, unforgettable Alyx, an ancient Phoenician mercenary teleported into the future to serve as guide and bodyguard for a band of stranded space tourists. The first African American writer to make a name for himself in the genre, Samuel R. Delany was hailed as “the best science-fiction writer in the world” on the basis of Nova (1968), a white-hot, fast-paced, protocyberpunk interstellar adventure featuring a misfit crew on a high-stakes quest. Stumbling on a mysterious ancient text among his father’s belongings, the son of a master woodcarver uncovers the key to revolutionary change in Jack Vance’s Emphyrio (1969), a marvel of craftsmanship and visionary world-building set on remote, feudal, theocratic Halma.

Collected interviews featuring the Nebula Award–winning author and his thoughts on topics like literary criticism, comic books, race, and sexuality. For nearly three decades, Samuel R. Delany''s science fiction has transported millions of readers to the fringes of time, technology, and outer space. Now Delany surveys the realms of his own experience as a writer, critic, theorist, and gay Black man in this collection of written interviews, a type of guided essay. Because the written interview avoids the "mutual presence positioned at the semantic core" of traditional interview, Delany explains, "a kind of cut remains between the participants—a fissure in which the truths there may be more malleable, less rigid." Within that fissure Delany pursues the breadth and depth of his ideas on language and theory, the politics of literary composition, the experience of marginality, and the philosophical, commercial, and personal contexts of writing today. Gathered from sources as diverse as Diacritics and The Comics Journal, these interviews reveal the broad range of Delany''s thought and interests. "Delany has a unique place in late twentieth century letters. A lifelong inhabitant of the margins, both social and literary, he has used his marginalized status as a lens to focus his astute observations of American literature and society. From these interviews his voice emerges, provocative, precise, and engaging." —Kathleen Spencer, University of Nebraska "Samuel R. Delany never shies away from contestable positions or provocative opinions. In his fiction, Delany can write like quicksilver, and in lectures or panel discussions, he is easily SF''s most articulate spokesperson in academia. . . . There is much here that is not covered in Delany''s critical or autobiographical writings, and much that anyone seriously interested in SF—or many of Delany''s other favorite topics—ought to consider." — Locus "Delany is fascinating whether discussing SF, comics, or his experiences as a Black American, and this collection . . . is as entertaining as it is informative." — Science Fiction Chronicle "Yevgeny Zamyatin? Stanislaw Lem? Forget it! Delany is both, with a lot of Borges and Bruno Schultz thrown in." — Village Voice

A four-volume "postmodern sword-and-sorcery" epic from a multiple Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author (The Washington Post Book World). Tales of Nevèrÿon: After his parents are killed during a political coup, Gorgik is taken into captivity and forced to work the government obsidian mines in Nevèrÿon''s Faltha Mountains. Years later, he is sold to serve one of the royal families, and eventually the army. When he is finally free, he leads a rebellion against Nevèrÿon''s rulers to end the tyranny of slavery. Neveryóna: Or, The Tale of Signs and Cities: One of the few in Nevèrÿon who can read and write, Pryn escapes her village on the back of a dragon. On her journey across the civil war–torn land, Pryn has a fateful encounter with Gorgik the Liberator, whom she finds herself fighting beside in his war against slavery. Flight from Nevèrÿon: A smuggler, witness, and worshipper of Gorgik the Liberator follows his idol''s bloody trail on a quest to meet him. But a disease has ravaged Nevèrÿon. Men, rich and poor, are dying. The illness seems to have first come from the Bridge of Lost Desire, a hangout for male and female prostitutes, and is spreading fast. With no hope of recovery or cure, it will change Nevèrÿon''s sexual and political landscape forever. Return to Nevèrÿon: Slavery is outlawed and the land is finally free. At a deserted castle in the countryside, as Gorgik the Liberator regales a young barbarian about his deeds, he prepares to return to the mines where his own slavery began for one final battle.

The renowned novelist and critic''s private journals, spanning from his years as a high school student in the Bronx to early adult life in San Francisco. For fifty years Samuel Delany has cultivated a special relationship with language in works of fiction, criticism, and memoir that have garnered critical praise and legions of fans. The present volume—the first in a series—reveals a new dimension of his genius. In Search of Silence presents over a decade''s worth of Delany''s private journals, commencing in 1957 when he was still a student at the Bronx High School of Science, and ending in 1969 when he was living in San Francisco and on the verge of reconceiving the novel that would become Dhalgren. In these pages, Delany muses on the writing of the stories that will establish him as a science fiction wunderkind, the early years of his marriage to the poet Marilyn Hacker, performances as a singer-songwriter during the heyday of the American folk revival, travels in Europe, experiences in a New York City commune, and much more—and crosses paths with artists working in many genres, including poets such as Robert Frost, W. H. Auden, and Marie Ponsot, and science fiction writers such as Arthur C. Clarke, Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny, and Joanna Russ. Delany scholar Kenneth R. James presents the journal entries alongside generous samplings of story outlines, poetry, fragments of novels and essays that have never seen publication, and more; James also provides biographical synopses and an extensive set of endnotes to supply contextual information and connect journal material to Delany''s published work. "This is a tremendously significant and vital addition to the oeuvre of Samuel Delany; it clarifies questions not only of the writer''s process, but also his development—to see, in his juvenilia, traces that take full form in his novels—is literally breathtaking." —Matthew Cheney, author of Blood: Stories "Traversing Delany''s youth, we see a precocious mind grappling with his own talent he lives on two registers, participating in the world and also observing it, living simultaneously as a kid in NYC and, ''a writer of genius.''" —Robert Minto, New Republic "Mesmerizing . . . a true portrait of an artist as a young Black man . . . already visible in these pages are the wit, sensitivity, penetration, playfulness and the incandescent intelligence that will characterize Delany and his extraordinary work." —Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

A, B, C: Three Short Novels contains the first three novels of Samuel R. Delany’s long and illustrious career. The Jewels of Aptor is a science-fantasy story about a seafaring quest that sets out to find powerful magic jewels on a mystical, forbidden island where unimaginable danger lies. The Ballad of Beta-2 is about a future academic searching for the true story behind an interstellar voyage, a journey over multiple generations that ended in tragedy. They Fly at Çiron is a fantasy about the clash between a marauding army and a peaceful village at the foot of a mountain from which a race of winged people oversees both sides. Presenting these three novels in this omnibus volume for the first time, along with a new foreword and afterword by the author, A, B, C showcases Delany’s masterful storytelling ability and deep devotion to his craft.

From the Hugo and Nebula–winning author, three literary tales trace the intricate interdependencies of memory, experience, and the self. Wesleyan University Press has made a significant commitment to the publication of the work of Samuel R. Delany, including this recent fiction, now available in paperback. The three long stories collected in Atlantis: three tales—"Atlantis: Model 1924," "Erik, Gwen, and D. H. Lawrences Aesthetic of Unrectified Feeling," and "Citre et Trans" —explore problems of memory, history, and transgression. Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards, and Guest of Honor at the 1995 World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, Delany was won a broad audience among fans of postmodern fiction with his theoretically sophisticated science fiction and fantasy. The stories of Atlantis: Three Tales are not science fiction, yet Locus, the trade publication of the science fiction field, notes that the title story "has an odd, unsettling power not usually associated with mainstream fiction." A writer whose audience extends across and beyond science fiction, black, gay, postmodern, and academic constituencies, Delany is finally beginning to achieve the broader recognition he deserves. "Delany, who''s best known for his science fiction . . . takes a variety of literary turns in these three novellas that chronicle the experience of the African American writer in the 20th century. . . . Balanced and full of intricate layers of prose, these novellas present a potpourri of literary references, detailed flashbacks and experimental page layouts. Delany seamlessly meshes graceful prose, cultural and philosophical depth and a knowledge of different forms and voices into a truly heady, literate blend." — Publishers Weekly "Delany sketches sympathetic portraits of young black men aswim in the dense, sweet hives of American cities." — New York Times Book Review

A keystone text in literary theory and science fiction The American Shore: Meditations on a Tale of Science Fiction by Thomas M. Disch—"Angouleme" was first published in 1978 to the intense interest of science fiction readers and the growing community of SF scholars. Recalling Nabokov''s commentary on Pushkin''s Eugene Onegin, Roland Barthes'' commentary on Balzac''s Sarazine, and Grabinier''s reading of The Heart of Hamlet, this book-length essay helped prove the genre worthy of serious investigation. The American Shore is the third in a series of influential critical works by Samuel R. Delany, beginning with The Jewel-Hinged Jaw and Starboard Wine, first published in the late seventies and reissued over the last five years by Wesleyan University Press, which helped win Delany a Pilgrim Award for Science Fiction Scholarship from the Science Fiction Research Association of America. This edition includes the author''s corrected text as well as a new introduction by Delany scholar Matthew Cheney.

Nebula Award Finalist: Reality unravels in a Midwestern town in this sci-fi epic by the acclaimed author of Babel-17. Includes a foreword by William Gibson. A young half–Native American known as the Kid has hitchhiked from Mexico to the midwestern city Bellona—only something is wrong there . . . In Bellona, the shattered city, a nameless cataclysm has left reality unhinged. Into this desperate metropolis steps the Kid, his fist wrapped in razor-sharp knives, to write, to love, to wound. So begins Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany’s masterwork, which in 1975 opened a new door for what science fiction could mean. A labyrinth of a novel, it raises questions about race, sexuality, identity, and art, but gives no easy answers, in a city that reshapes itself with each step you take . . . This ebook features an illustrated biography of Samuel R. Delany including rare images from his early career.

Hours of great reading await, with tales from some of the 20th century's most renowned science fiction authors, Here are 25 science fiction stories (plus a bonus short-short): UNKNOWN THINGS, by Reginald Bretnor CAPTIVES OF THE FLAME, by Samuel R. Delany EXPEDITER, by Mack Reynolds ONE-SHOT, by James Blish SHIPWRECK IN THE SKY, by Eando Binder ZEN, by Jerome Bixby LANCELOT BIGGS COOKS A PIRATE, by Nelson Bond SENTIMENT, INC., by Poul Anderson THE ISSAHAR ARTIFACTS, by J. F. Bone THE NEXT LOGICAL STEP, by Ben Bova YEAR OF THE BIG THAW, by Marion Zimmer Bradley EARTHMEN BEARING GIFTS, by Fredric Brown HAPPY ENDING, by Fredric Brown and Mack Reynolds LIGHTER THAN YOU THINK, by Nelson Bond RIYA’S FOUNDLING, by Algis Budrys ACCIDENTAL DEATH, by Peter Baily AND ALL THE EARTH A GRAVE, by C. C. MacApp DEAD RINGER, by Lester del Rey THE CRYSTAL CRYPT, by Philip K. Dick THE JUPITER WEAPON, by Charles L. Fontenay THE MAN WHO HATED MARS, by Randall Garrett NAVY DAY, by Harry Harrison THE JUDAS VALLEY, by Robert Silverberg & Randall Garrett NATIVE SON, by T. D. Hamm JUBILEE, by Richard A. Lupoff FINAL CALL, by John Gregory Betancourt And don't forget to check out all the other volumes in the "Megapack" series! Search on "Megapack" in the ebook store to see the complete list...covering more science fiction volumes, plus adventure stories, military, fantasy, ghost stories, westerns, and much more!

Interviews with the author of Dhalgren; Babel-17; Stars in My Pocket like Grains of Sand; the Nevéryon cycle; and Times Square Red, Times Square Blue

"Samuel R. Delany''s The Jewel-Hinged Jaw first appeared in 1977, and has long been out of print and hard to find. Its demonstration that science fiction is a special language, rather than gadgets and green-skinned aliens, had an impact that reverberates today in science fiction criticism. This edition includes two new essays, one written at the time and one written about those times, as well as an introduction by writer and teacher Matthew Cheney, placing Delany''s work in historical context. Close textual analyses of Thomas M. Disch, Ursula K. Le Guin, Roger Zelazny, and Joanna Russ read as brilliantly today as when they first appeared." --Book Jacket.

Essential reading for the creative writer.

The story of a truly galactic civilization with over 6,000 inhabited worlds. Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand is a science fiction masterpiece, an essay on the inexplicability of sexual attractiveness, and an examination of interstellar politics among far-flung worlds. First published in 1984, the novel''s central issues—technology, globalization, gender, sexuality, and multiculturalism—have only become more pressing with the passage of time. The novel''s topic is information itself: What are the repercussions, once it has been made public, that two individuals have been found to be each other''s perfect erotic object out to "point nine-nine-nine and several nines percent more"? What will it do to the individuals involved, to the city they inhabit, to their geosector, to their entire world society, especially when one is an illiterate worker, the sole survivor of a world destroyed by "cultural fugue," and the other is—you!

Author of the bestselling Dhalgren and winner of four Nebulas and one Hugo, Samuel R. Delany is one of the most acclaimed writers of speculative fiction. Babel-17, winner of the Nebula Award for best novel of the year, is a fascinating tale of a famous poet bent on deciphering a secret language that is the key to the enemy’s deadly force, a task that requires she travel with a splendidly improbable crew to the site of the next attack. For the first time, Babel-17 is published as the author intended with the short novel Empire Star, the tale of Comet Jo, a simple-minded teen thrust into a complex galaxy when he’s entrusted to carry a vital message to a distant world. Spellbinding and smart, both novels are testimony to Delany’s vast and singular talent.

First foray into pornography by a writer of science fiction. A philosophy students becomes interested in a dead philosopher who was a pervert. In time he begins imitating the man and in the process reaches the depths of perversion. By the author of They Fly at Ciron.

In this chronicle of a long-ago land on civilization''s brink, Gorgik the Liberator''s slave revolt takes an unexpected turn. Flight from Neveryon contains a novella, a long story, and a full-length novel.

A novel of myth and literacy, Nevèrÿona tells how young Pryn, who can write in this largely pre-literate land, flees her mountain village on a dragon''s back for Neveryon''s capital port, Kolhari, to aid Gorgik''s rebelllion. Now on the Bridge of Lost Desire, now in Madam Keyne''s emotionally embattled gardens, now at an empty, moonlit mansion in Nevèrÿon - Kolhari''s old artistocractic neighbourhood - and finally through a journey into the dangerous south, Pryn finds more answers - and questions - about Nevèrÿon''s power structure.