P. Djèlí Clark
Dexter Gabriel, better known by his pen name Phenderson Djèlí Clark, is an American speculative fiction writer and historian, who is an assistant professor in the department of history at the University of Connecticut. He uses a pen name to differentiate his literary work from his academic work, and has also published under the name A. Phenderson Clark. This pen name, "Djèlí", makes reference to the griots – traditional Western African storytellers, historians and poets.
In 2022, his fantasy novel A Master of Djinn won the Nebula and Locus Awards. He has also won awards for his short fiction, including the Nebula, Locus and British Fantasy Awards for the novella Ring Shout in 2021.
Life and career
Dexter Gabriel was born in New York City in 1971, but spent most of his early years living in his parents' original home of Trinidad and Tobago. At age eight, he returned to the United States and lived in Staten Island and Brooklyn before moving to Houston, when he was 12. Gabriel went to college at Texas State University, San Marcos, earning a B.A. and then an M.A. in history. He then earned a doctorate in history from Stony Brook University. Gabriel is currently assistant professor in the department of history at the University of Connecticut.In 2011, Gabriel began publishing short stories variously as P. Djèlí Clark, Djèlí A. Clark, Phenderson Djèlí Clark, and A. Phenderson Clark. Phenderson was his grandfather's name, while Clark was his mother's maiden name; Djèlí refers to West African storytellers, known in French as griots. He chose to use a pen name in order to separate his academic and literary work. In 2016, Clark sold his first major work, a novelette titled "A Dead Djinn in Cairo", to Tor.com.
Since then, he has published novellas, short stories, and a novel. Four of his works – "A Dead Djinn in Cairo", "The Angel of Khan el-Khalili", The Haunting of Tram Car 015 and A Master of Djinn – are set in the same world, an alternate-universe Egypt. They are collectively titled the Ministry of Alchemy series or the Dead Djinn Universe.
He has been announced as Guest of Honour at the 2027 Eastercon and was a Guest of Honor at Readercon 2025.
Awards
Partial bibliography
''Dead Djinn Universe''
- "A Dead Djinn in Cairo", Tor.com, 2016.
- "The Angel of Khan el-Khalili", Clockwork Cairo: Steampunk Tales of Egypt, ed. Matthew Bright, Twopenny Books, 2017.
- The Haunting of Tram Car 015, Tor.com, 2019.
- A Master of Djinn, Tordotcom, 2021.
For young readers
Abeni's Song, Starscape, 2023Abeni and the Kingdom of Gold, Starscape, 2025Standalone novellas
- The Black God's Drums, Tor.com, 2018.
- Ring Shout, Tordotcom, 2020.The Dead Cat Tail Assassins, Tordotcom, 2024.
Other works
- "The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington", Fireside Fiction, 2018
- "If the Martians Have Magic", Uncanny Magazine, 2021.
As Dexter Gabriel
- ''Jubilee’s Experiment: The British West Indies and American Abolitionism. Cambridge University Press, April 2023.''