Samuel Ray Delany, Jr. (photo ©Alex Lozupone) was born on April 1, 1942, in New York.

Coming from a wealthy family, unlike other African-American kids from Harlem, he could receive a good education. In high school, Samuel R. Delany met Marilyn Hacker, with whom she married in 1961.

Together with his wife, in 1996 Delany traveled for months across Europe, finding inspiration for various elements of his later stories. In 1974 the couple had a daughter, Iva.

Samuel R. Delany’s marriage lasted about twelve years and it was peculiar. During those years, he and his wife had several relationships, generally homosexual.

Samuel R. Delany started writing fiction when he was very young and in the ’60s he published several novels beginning with “The Jewels of Aptor” in 1962. In 1966 he published “Babel-17”, which won the Nebula Award. The following year he published “The Einstein Intersection” with which he won the Nebula Award again.

In 1974, Samuel R. Delany published “Dhalgren”, his most famous novel but also his most controversial. It’s in fact a very long and complex work with a non-linear plot from which he obtained great praise but also fierce criticism.

In the following years, Samuel R. Delany wrote the stories in the “Return to Nevèrÿon” series, eleven stories of the “sword and sorcery” genre published in four volumes: “Tales of Nevèrÿon” in 1979, “The Tale of Signs and Cities” in 1983, “Flight from Nevèrÿon” in 1985 and “Return to Nevèrÿon” in 1994.

In 1988, Samuel R. Delany published “The Motion of Light in Water”, an autobiography in which he speaks of his experiences as an African-American gay writer. This book won the Hugo Award as the “Best Non-Fiction Book”.

Often in Samuel R. Delany’s works, there are characters who are writers or poets. Other characters in his stories have in common the curious feature of wearing only one shoe. There are also some recurring themes: mythology, memory, language, and perception. Delany tends to explore various combinations of these themes he mixes with elements of classic science fiction in a very sophisticated way, creating works that can be read on different levels.

Since 1988, Samuel R. Delany has been a university professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University at Buffalo and Temple University. He still continues his activities as a writer, also of books of literary criticism.