Samuel Ray Delany, Jr was born on April 1, 1942 in New York. He attended the Bronx High School of Science then the City College of New York. He took a position at the University of Massachusetts at Amhers to teach as professor of Comparative Literature. In 1995, he became the University of Minnesota's Winton Scholar and Edelstein-Keller Visiting Writer in the Program in Creative Writing, Department of English.