D. Harlan Wilson (born September 3, 1971) is an American novelist,

short-story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

writer,

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

and English professor.D. Harlan Wilson biography
on the Los Angeles Review of Books, accessed March 1, 2017. His body of work bridges the aesthetics of

literary theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mo ...

with various genres of

speculative fiction Speculative fiction is a term that has been used with a variety of (sometimes contradictory) meanings. The broadest interpretation is as a category of fiction encompassing genres with elements that do not exist in reality, recorded history, na ...

, with Wilson also being recognized as one of the co-founders of

bizarro fiction Bizarro fiction is a contemporary literary genre which often uses elements of absurdism, satire, and the grotesque, along with pop-surrealism and genre fiction staples, in order to create subversive, weird, and entertaining works. The term was ado ...

." Among his books is the award-winning

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

Dr. Identity ''Dr. Identity'' (2007) is the fourth book and first novel by American author D. Harlan Wilson. Set in a dystopian, mediatized future where people surrogate themselves with android lookalikes, the novel focuses on the foils of an English profes ...

'', the two-volume short story collection ''Battle without Honor or Humanity,'' a monograph on John Carpenter’s '' They Live'' and a critical study of the life and work of J. G. Ballard.

Writing

Wilson began writing fiction in his early twenties when he took a creative writing course with novelist

Patricia Powell Patricia Powell (born 1966) is a Jamaican writer, who has won awards for her novels. Biography Born in Jamaica, she moved to the United States in her late teens. She received her bachelor's degree at Wellesley College, and an MFA in creative wri ...

while enrolled in graduate school at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He has since published more than 20 books of fiction and nonfiction. Wilson is perhaps best known for ''

,'' described by '' Booklist'' as a "madcap, macabre black comedy," and the subsequent '' Peckinpah: An Ultraviolent Romance'', both of which he has fancifully categorized as examples of "splattershtick," a literary, comic, ultraviolent form of

metafiction Metafiction is a form of fiction which emphasises its own narrative structure in a way that continually reminds the audience that they are reading or viewing a fictional work. Metafiction is self-conscious about language, literary form, and story ...

. He is also known for helping create and shape the aesthetics of

,Against Literature as System: D. Harlan Wilson’s Splatterschticks
by David Vichnar, 3:AM Magazine, accessed March 1, 2017. which has been described as a "mélange of elements of absurdism, satire, and the grotesque." Many of his books are published by Raw Dog Screaming Press, a small press specializing in bizarro fiction. Much of his writing satirizes the idiocy of

pop culture Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * Pop (Gas al ...

and western society, illustrating how "the reel increasingly usurps the real." Taken as a whole, his writing is difficult to quantify and he has been said to defy categorization; some critics have called him "a genre in himself." '' Publishers Weekly'' has described his fiction as "testosterone-fueled and intentionally disorienting" which "invokes not a dialogue with the reader but a bare-knuckle fistfight." In addition to writing fiction, Wilson is a prolific reviewer and essayist being frequently published in places such as the '' Los Angeles Review of Books'', the academic journal '' Extrapolation'', and the ''Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts''. Wilson is editor-in-chief of Anti-Oedipus Press, reviews editor of '' Extrapolation'' and managing editor of Guide Dog Books. He is also emeritus editor-in-chief of ''The Dream People'', a journal focused on bizarro fiction where he previously served as editor-in-chief.

Academic Work

Wilson is Professor of English at the Lake Campus of

Wright State University Wright State University is a public research university in Fairborn, Ohio. Originally opened in 1964 as a branch campus of Miami University and Ohio State University, it became an independent institution in 1967 and was named in honor of aviation ...

, where he has been teaching since 2006 after receiving his Ph.D. in English from

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

. Wilson is the author of ''Modern Masters of Science Fiction: J.G. Ballard'' from University of Illinois Press. His other academic books include ''Cultographies: They Live'' from Columbia University Press, which the ''San Francisco Book Review'' called a "scholarly examination of a cult classic still debated today," and '' Technologized Desire: Selfhood & the Body in Postcapitalist Science Fiction''. He has also written a number of scholarly articles on genre fiction along with entries for books such as ''The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy''.

Bibliography

Auto/Biographies

* ''Nietzsche: The Unmanned Autohagiography'' (2023) * ''Douglass: The Lost Autobiography'' (2014) * ''Freud: The Penultimate Biography'' (2014) * ''Hitler: The Terminal Biography'' (2014)

Plays

* ''Jackanape and the Fingermen'' (2021) * ''Three Plays'' (2016)

Stand-Alone Novels

* ''Outré'' (2020) * ''Primordial: An Abstraction'' (2014) * '' Peckinpah: An Ultraviolent Romance'' (1st ed. 2009; 2nd ed. 2013) * '' Blankety Blank: A Memoir of Vulgaria'' (2008)

The Scikungfi Trilogy

* ''The Kyoto Man: Book 3'' (2013) * ''Codename Prague: Book 2'' (2011) * ''

, or, Farewell to Plaquedemia: Book 1'' (2007) — Winner of the Wonderland Book Award

Fiction Collections

* ''Natural Complexions'' (2018) * ''Battles without Honor or Humanity'' (2017) * ''Battle without Honor or Humanity: Vol. 2'' (2016) * ''Battle without Honor or Humanity: Vol. 1'' (2015) * ''Diegeses'' (2013) * ''They Had Goat Heads'' (2010) * ''

Pseudo-City {{Infobox Book , , name = Pseudo-City , image = Pseudocity.jpg , author = D. Harlan Wilson , cover_artist = Brandon Duncan (based on Magritte: "Golconda" , country = United States , language = English , ser ...

'' (2005) * ''

Stranger on the Loose ''Stranger on the Loose'' (2003) is the second book by American author D. Harlan Wilson. It contains twenty-seven irreal short stories and flash fiction as well as a novella, "Igsnay Bürdd the Animal Trainer." Pieces in this collection origi ...

'' (2003) * '' The Kafka Effekt'' (2001)

Fiction Theory

* ''The Psychotic Dr. Schreber'' (2019)

Literary & Film Criticism

* ''The Stars My Destination: A Criticial Companion'' ( Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) * ''Constellations: Minority Report'' ( Liverpool University Press, 2022) * ''Modern Masters of Science Fiction: J.G. Ballard'' ( University of Illinois Press, 2017) * ''Cultographies: They Live'' ( Columbia University Press, 2015) * '' Technologized Desire: Selfhood & the Body in Postcapitalist Science Fiction'' (2009)

Films

* ''The Cocktail Party'' (2006): Co-written with director Brandon Duncan, this short, animated, rotoscoped

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

is a highly abstracted and philosophical (post)postmodern meditation on the narcissistic themes of consumerism, redundant self-analysis and rampant hypocrisy. The film won over ten awards, among them Best Animation at ACE Film Festival.

Trivia

*Wilson is a direct descendant of

James Fenimore Cooper James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonist and Indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought h ...

and brother-in-law of D I Smith of the band Pilots of Japan.

References

External links

Official Website
*
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, D. Harlan 1971 births Living people Wright State University faculty 21st-century American novelists American male dramatists and playwrights American male novelists American fantasy writers American horror writers American science fiction writers Novelists from Michigan American male short story writers 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Ohio