SAMUEL DELANY, African American, writer and academic, award winning science-fiction author. Samuel Ray Delany, Jr. was born in New York City. Delany is an award-winning American science fiction author and has written works that have garnered substantial critical acclaim, including the novels The Einstein Intersection, Nova, Hogg, Dhalgren, and the Return to Nevèrÿon series. Since January 2001 he has been a professor of English and Creative Writing at Temple University in Philadelphia. He is widely respected in the academic world as a literary critic.

Delany has identified as gay since adolescence. However, some observers have described him as bisexual due to his complicated 19-year marriage with poet/translator Marilyn Hacker, who was aware of Delany’s orientation and has identified as a lesbian since their divorce. Delany and Hacker had one child in 1974, Iva Hacker-Delany, now a physician.

In 1991, Delany entered a committed, nonexclusive relationship with Dennis Rickett, previously a homeless book vendor. Their courtship is chronicled in the graphic memoir Bread and Wine: An Erotic Tale of New York (1999), a collaboration with the writer and artist Mia Wolff. Delany is an atheist and a supporter of NAMBLA.