Samuel R. Delany Reading Order

43 books (1967–2021)

Start with Dangerous Visions, the first of 43 books in the Anthologies series.

#	Title
1	Dangerous Visions 1967Buy 🇺🇸
2	Dangerous Visions 3 1967Buy 🇺🇸
3	Quark 1 1970Buy 🇺🇸
4	Quark 4 1971Buy 🇺🇸
5	Shores Beneath 1971Buy 🇺🇸
6	Those Who Can: A Science Fiction Reader 1973Buy 🇺🇸
7	Alpha 5 1974Buy 🇺🇸
8	Wondermakers 2 1974Buy 🇺🇸
9	Cosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy, November 1977 1977Buy 🇺🇸
10	Nebula Awards 13 1980Buy 🇺🇸
11	TriQuarterly 49: Science Fiction 1980Buy 🇺🇸
12	The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Three: Nebula Winners 1965-1969 1981Buy 🇺🇸
13	What If? Volume 3 1982Buy 🇺🇸
14	Nebula Award Stories 3 1983Buy 🇺🇸
15	Worlds Apart 1986Buy 🇺🇸
16	diacritics: a review of contemporary criticism 1986Buy 🇺🇸
17	Mississippi Review 47 / 48 1988Buy 🇺🇸
18	Storming the Reality Studio 1991Buy 🇺🇸
19	Fiction International 22 1992Buy 🇺🇸
20	Avant-Pop: Fiction for a Daydream Nation 1993Buy 🇺🇸
21	The Mammoth Book of Erotica 1994Buy 🇺🇸
22	Shade 1996Buy 🇺🇸
23	Swords of the Rainbow 1996Buy 🇺🇸
24	Boys Like Us: Gay Writers Tell Their Coming Out Stories 1997Buy 🇺🇸
25	A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora 2000Buy 🇺🇸
26	Supermen 2002Buy 🇺🇸
27	The Ultimate Cyberpunk 2002Buy 🇺🇸
28	110 Stories 2004Buy 🇺🇸
29	Reading the Bones 2004Buy 🇺🇸
30	The Space Opera Renaissance 2006Buy 🇺🇸
31	Fiction's Present 2007Buy 🇺🇸
32	The WisCon Chronicles, Volume 1 2007Buy 🇺🇸
33	The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction 2010Buy 🇺🇸
34	Ecce Kosti Addenda 2012Buy 🇺🇸
35	Telling Tales: The Clarion West 30th Anniversary Anthology 2013Buy 🇺🇸
36	The Shadows Took Shape 2013Buy 🇺🇸
37	The Sixth Science Fiction Megapack 2013Buy 🇺🇸
38	Cross Worlds: Transcultural Poetics: An Anthology 2014Buy 🇺🇸
39	Mermaids and Other Mysteries of the Deep 2015Buy 🇺🇸
40	People of Color Destroy Science Fiction! 2016Buy 🇺🇸
41	The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2018 2018Buy 🇺🇸
42	I Transgress 2019Buy 🇺🇸
43	Out of the Ruins: The Apocalyptic Anthology 2021Buy 🇺🇸

13 books (1967–2026)

Start with Aye, and Gomorrah, the first of 13 books in the Collections series.

#	Title
1	Aye, and Gomorrah 1967Buy 🇺🇸
2	Driftglass 1971Buy 🇺🇸
3	Distant Stars 1981Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Complete Nebula Award-Winning Fiction 1986Buy 🇺🇸
5	Driftglass/Starshards 1993Buy 🇺🇸
6	Atlantis 1995Buy 🇺🇸
7	Sensitive Skin #9: post-beat, pre-apocalyptic art, writing and music(With: Bernard Meisler,John Lurie) 2012Buy 🇺🇸
8	A, B, C 2015Buy 🇺🇸
9	The Novels of Samuel R. Delany Volume One 2017Buy 🇺🇸
10	Occasional Views, Volume 1 2021Buy 🇺🇸
11	Occasional Views, Volume 2 2021Buy 🇺🇸
12	Roots of Imagination: A Chrestomathy 2023Buy 🇺🇸
13	Last and First Tales 2026Buy 🇺🇸

22 books (1977–2021)

Start with The Jewel-Hinged Jaw, the first of 22 books in the Non-Fiction series.

#	Title
1	The Jewel-Hinged Jaw 1977Buy 🇺🇸
2	The American Shore 1978Buy 🇺🇸
3	Heavenly Breakfast 1979Buy 🇺🇸
4	Starboard Wine 1984Buy 🇺🇸
5	The Motion of Light in Water 1988Buy 🇺🇸
6	Wagner Artaud 1988Buy 🇺🇸
7	The Straits of Messina 1989Buy 🇺🇸
8	Silent Interviews 1994Buy 🇺🇸
9	Longer Views 1996Buy 🇺🇸
10	Times Square Red, Times Square Blue 1999Buy 🇺🇸
11	1984 2000Buy 🇺🇸
12	Shorter Views 2000Buy 🇺🇸
13	Black Gay Man 2001Buy 🇺🇸
14	About Writing 2006Buy 🇺🇸
15	Conversations with Samuel R. Delany 2009Buy 🇺🇸
16	The Atheist in the Attic(With: Eleanor Arnason) 2018Buy 🇺🇸
17	Letters from Amherst 2019Buy 🇺🇸
18	Frederick Weston & Samuel R. Delany in Conversation(With: Frederick Weston) 2021Buy 🇺🇸
19	Occasional Views, Volume 1 2021Buy 🇺🇸
20	Occasional Views, Volume 2 2021Buy 🇺🇸
21	Of Solids and Surds 2021Buy 🇺🇸
22	The Tragedy of Ophelia: Two Essays 2021Buy 🇺🇸

32 books (1984–2026)

Start with The Presidential Papers(By: John H. Kessel), the first of 32 books in the Outspoken Authors series.

#	Title
1	The Presidential Papers(By: John H. Kessel) 1984Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Human Front(By: Ken MacLeod) 2001Buy 🇺🇸
3	Lucky Strike(By: Kim Stanley Robinson) 2009Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Left Left Behind(By: Terry Bisson,Eleanor Arnason) 2009Buy 🇺🇸
5	Mammoths of the Great Plains(By: Eleanor Arnason) 2010Buy 🇺🇸
6	The Underbelly(By: Gary Phillips,Eleanor Arnason) 2010Buy 🇺🇸
7	Modem Times 2.0(By: Michael Moorcock,Eleanor Arnason) 2011Buy 🇺🇸
8	The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow(By: Cory Doctorow,Eleanor Arnason) 2011Buy 🇺🇸
9	The Wild Girls(By: Ursula K. Le Guin,Eleanor Arnason) 2011Buy 🇺🇸
10	Report from Planet Midnight(By: Nalo Hopkinson,Eleanor Arnason) 2012Buy 🇺🇸
11	Surfing the Gnarl(By: Rudy Rucker) 2012Buy 🇺🇸
12	New Taboos(By: John Shirley) 2013Buy 🇺🇸
13	Patty Hearst & The Twinkie Murders: A Tale of Two Trials(By: Eleanor Arnason,Paul Krassner) 2013Buy 🇺🇸
14	The Science of Herself(By: Karen Joy Fowler,Eleanor Arnason) 2013Buy 🇺🇸
15	Raising Hell(By: Norman Spinrad,Eleanor Arnason) 2014Buy 🇺🇸
16	Gypsy(By: Carter Scholz,Eleanor Arnason) 2015Buy 🇺🇸
17	My Life, My Body(By: Marge Piercy) 2015Buy 🇺🇸
18	Miracles Ain't What They Used to Be(By: Joe R. Lansdale,Eleanor Arnason) 2016Buy 🇺🇸
19	Fire.(By: Elizabeth Hand,Eleanor Arnason) 2017Buy 🇺🇸
20	Totalitopia(By: John Crowley) 2017Buy 🇺🇸
21	The Atheist in the Attic(With: Eleanor Arnason) 2018Buy 🇺🇸
22	Thoreau's Microscope(By: Michael Blumlein,Eleanor Arnason) 2018Buy 🇺🇸
23	A City Made of Words(By: Paul Park) 2019Buy 🇺🇸
24	Talk Like a Man(By: Nisi Shawl) 2019Buy 🇺🇸
25	The Beatrix Gates(By: Rachel Pollack) 2019Buy 🇺🇸
26	Big Girl(By: Meg Elison) 2020Buy 🇺🇸
27	Planetbreaker’s Son(By: Nick Mamatas) 2021Buy 🇺🇸
28	Utopias of the Third Kind(By: Vandana Singh) 2021Buy 🇺🇸
29	Night Shift(By: Eileen Gunn) 2022Buy 🇺🇸
30	The Collapsing Frontier(By: Jonathan Lethem) 2024Buy 🇺🇸
31	Not What I Intended(By: Nancy Kress) 2025Buy 🇺🇸
32	She is Here(By: Nicola Griffith) 2026Buy 🇺🇸

4 books (1979–1987)

Start with Tales of Nevèrÿon, the first of 4 books in the Return to Nevèrÿon series.

#	Title
1	Tales of Nevèrÿon 1979Buy 🇺🇸
2	Neveryóna 1983Buy 🇺🇸
3	Flight from Nevèrÿon 1985Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Bridge of Lost Desire / Return to Neveryon 1987Buy 🇺🇸

59 books (1999–2025)

Start with Private Affairs(By: Phillip Brian Harper), the first of 59 books in the Sexual Cultures series.

#	Title
1	Private Affairs(By: Phillip Brian Harper) 1999Buy 🇺🇸
2	Times Square Red, Times Square Blue 1999Buy 🇺🇸
3	In Your Face(By: Mandy Merck) 2000Buy 🇺🇸
4	Murdering Masculinities(By: Greg Forter) 2000Buy 🇺🇸
5	Tropics of Desire(By: José Quiroga) 2000Buy 🇺🇸
6	Black Gay Man(By: Robert F. Reid-Pharr) 2001Buy 🇺🇸
7	Our Monica, Ourselves(By: Lauren Berlant,Lisa A. Duggan) 2001Buy 🇺🇸
8	Passing(By: ) 2001Buy 🇺🇸
9	Queer Globalizations(By: Martin F. Manalansan IV,Arnaldo Cruz-Malave) 2002Buy 🇺🇸
10	The Explanation For Everything(By: Paul Morrison) 2002Buy 🇺🇸
11	Love the Sin(By: Janet R. Jakobsen) 2003Buy 🇺🇸
12	Queer Latinidad(By: Juana María Rodríguez) 2003Buy 🇺🇸
13	Boricua Pop(By: Frances Negrón-Muntaner,Frances n-Muntaner) 2004Buy 🇺🇸
14	In a Queer Time and Place(By: J. Jack Halberstam) 2005Buy 🇺🇸
15	Why I Hate Abercrombie & Fitch(By: Dwight A. McBride) 2005Buy 🇺🇸
16	God Hates Fags(By: Michael Cobb) 2006Buy 🇺🇸
17	Arranging Grief(By: Dana Luciano) 2007Buy 🇺🇸
18	Once You Go Black(By: Robert F. Reid-Pharr) 2007Buy 🇺🇸
19	The Latino Body(By: Lazaro Lima) 2007Buy 🇺🇸
20	Cruising Utopia(By: José Esteban Muñoz) 2009Buy 🇺🇸
21	Another Country(By: ) 2010Buy 🇺🇸
22	Extravagant Abjection(By: Darieck Scott) 2010Buy 🇺🇸
23	Relocations(By: Karen Tongson) 2011Buy 🇺🇸
24	Beyond the Nation(By: Martin Ponce) 2012Buy 🇺🇸
25	Single(By: Michael Cobb) 2012Buy 🇺🇸
26	Brown Boys and Rice Queens(By: Eng-Beng Lim) 2013Buy 🇺🇸
27	Transforming Citizenships(By: Isaac West) 2013Buy 🇺🇸
28	Investigating Young People's Sexual Cultures(By: Clarissa Smith,Feona Attwood) 2014Buy 🇺🇸
29	Sensational Flesh(By: Amber Jamilla Musser) 2014Buy 🇺🇸
30	Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings(By: Juana María Rodríguez) 2014Buy 🇺🇸
31	The Delectable Negro(By: Vincent Woodard) 2014Buy 🇺🇸
32	The Exquisite Corpse of Asian America(By: Rachel C.Lee) 2014Buy 🇺🇸
33	A Taste for Brown Bodies(By: Hiram Pérez) 2015Buy 🇺🇸
34	Embodied Avatars(By: Uri McMillan) 2015Buy 🇺🇸
35	Not Gay(By: Jane Ward) 2015Buy 🇺🇸
36	Wedlocked(By: Katherine Franke) 2015Buy 🇺🇸
37	A Body, Undone(By: Christina Crosby) 2016Buy 🇺🇸
38	Archives of Flesh(By: Robert F. Reid-Pharr) 2016Buy 🇺🇸
39	The Color of Kink(By: Ariane Cruz) 2016Buy 🇺🇸
40	Black Performance on the Outskirts of the Left(By: Malik Gaines) 2017Buy 🇺🇸
41	Afro-Fabulations(By: ) 2018Buy 🇺🇸
42	After the Party(By: ) 2018Buy 🇺🇸
43	Queer Nuns(By: Melissa M. Wilcox) 2018Buy 🇺🇸
44	Sensual Excess(By: Amber Jamilla Musser) 2018Buy 🇺🇸
45	The Life and Death of Latisha King(By: ) 2018Buy 🇺🇸
46	Archiving an Epidemic(By: Robb Hernández) 2019Buy 🇺🇸
47	Frottage(By: Keguro Macharia) 2019Buy 🇺🇸
48	Queer Faith(By: ) 2019Buy 🇺🇸
49	Queer Times, Black Futures(By: ) 2019Buy 🇺🇸
50	Becoming Human(By: Zakiyyah Iman Jackson) 2020Buy 🇺🇸
51	The Sex Obsession(By: Janet R. Jakobsen) 2020Buy 🇺🇸
52	The Tragedy of Heterosexuality(By: Jane Ward) 2020Buy 🇺🇸
53	Keeping It Unreal(By: Darieck Scott) 2022Buy 🇺🇸
54	Sexuality Beyond Consent(By: ) 2023Buy 🇺🇸
55	Bottoms Up(By: Xiomara Verenice Cervantes-Gomez) 2024Buy 🇺🇸
56	Deviant Matter(By: Kyla Wazana Tompkins) 2024Buy 🇺🇸
57	Queer Childhoods(By: Mary Zaborskis) 2024Buy 🇺🇸
58	Extravagant Camp(By: Chris A. Eng) 2025Buy 🇺🇸
59	Queer Lasting(By: Sarah Ensor) 2025Buy 🇺🇸

5 books (1962–2004)

Start with The Jewels of Aptor, the first of 5 books in the Short Stories/Novellas series.

#	Title
1	The Jewels of Aptor 1962Buy 🇺🇸
2	Empire Star 1966Buy 🇺🇸
3	Home Is the Hangman/We, in Some Strange Power's Employ, Move on a Rigorous Line 1990Buy 🇺🇸
4	Bread and Wine 1999Buy 🇺🇸
5	Phallos 2004Buy 🇺🇸

16 books (1965–2020)

Start with The Ballad of Beta-2, the first of 16 books in the Standalone Novels series.

#	Title
1	The Ballad of Beta-2 1965Buy 🇺🇸
2	Babel-17 1966Buy 🇺🇸
3	The Einstein Intersection 1967Buy 🇺🇸
4	Nova 1968Buy 🇺🇸
5	The Tides of Lust 1973Buy 🇺🇸
6	Dhalgren 1975Buy 🇺🇸
7	Tritón / Trouble on Triton 1976Buy 🇺🇸
8	Empire 1978Buy 🇺🇸
9	Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand 1984Buy 🇺🇸
10	They Fly At Çiron 1993Buy 🇺🇸
11	Hogg 1994Buy 🇺🇸
12	The Mad Man 1994Buy 🇺🇸
13	Dark Reflections 2007Buy 🇺🇸
14	Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders 2011Buy 🇺🇸
15	Voyage, Orestes! 2019Buy 🇺🇸
16	Shoat Rumblin: His Sensations and Ideas 2020Buy 🇺🇸

3 books (1963–1965)

Start with Captives of the Flame / Out of the Dead City and read in order.

#	Title
1	Captives of the Flame / Out of the Dead City 1963Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Towers of Toron 1964Buy 🇺🇸
3	City of a Thousand Suns 1965Buy 🇺🇸