Michael Cisco (born October 13, 1970) is an American writer, Deleuzian academic, and teacher currently living in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He is best known for his

first novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...

, ''The Divinity Student,'' winner of the

International Horror Guild Award The International Horror Guild Award (also known as the IHG Award) was an accolade recognizing excellence in the field of Horror fiction, horror/dark fantasy, presented by the International Horror Guild (IHG) from 1995 to 2008. The IHG Awards wer ...

for Best First Novel of 1999. His novel ''The Great Lover'' was nominated for the 2011

Shirley Jackson Award The Shirley Jackson Awards are literary awards named after Shirley Jackson in recognition of her legacy in writing. These awards for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror and the dark fantastic are presented ...

for Best Novel of the Year, and declared the Best Weird Novel of 2011 by the Weird Fiction Review. He has described his work as "de-genred" fiction.

Biography

Michael Terry Cisco was born and raised in

Glendale, California Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verdugo Mountains regions of Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census the population was 196,543, up from ...

. His father worked as an inventor and principal scientist for the

Hughes Aircraft Company The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California, as a division of Hughes Tool Company. The company was known for producing, among other produ ...

and his mother worked as photographer and graphic designer for Glendale Community College's Public Information Office. Cisco attended

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...

as an undergraduate, where he received his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in 1992. As part of his undergraduate studies, Cisco studied at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

for one year. He obtained his

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

from

SUNY Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

in 1994 and both his Masters of Philosophy in 2002 and PhD in 2004 at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. Cisco is a professor at the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

Bibliography

Novels

*''The Divinity Student'' (1999) *''The Tyrant'' (2003) *''The San Veneficio Canon'' (2004) *''The Traitor'' (2007) *''The Narrator'' (2010) *''The Great Lover'' (2011) *''Celebrant'' (2012) *''Member'' (2013) *''The Golem'' (2013) -Book,_Cheeky_Frawg.html" ;"title="Cheeky_Frawg.html" ;"title="-Book, Cheeky Frawg">-Book, Cheeky Frawg">Cheeky_Frawg.html" ;"title="-Book, Cheeky Frawg">-Book, Cheeky Frawg*''Animal Money'' (2015) *''Wretch of the Sun'' (2016) *''Unlanguage'' (2018) *''Ethics'' (2022) *''Pest'' (2023) (forthcoming from CLASH Books)

Nonfiction

*''Weird Fiction: A Genre Study'' (2022)

Collections

*''Secret Hours'' (2007) *''Antisocieties'' (2021)

Chapbooks

*''The Knife Dance'' (2016) *''Do You Mind if We Dance with Your Legs?'' (2020)

Translations

*''Headache'' by Julio Cortázar (2014) *''The Sound of the Mill'' by Marcel Béalu (2014) *''The Supper'' by Alfonso Reyes (2015)

Short fiction

*''Uncollected Letter'' (1996) *''The Water Nymphs'' (1996) *''Reliquaries'' (1997) *''Translation'' (1998) *''For No Eyes'' (1998) *''He Will Be There'' (1999) *''Herbert West--Reincarnated Part VI: The Chaos into Time'' (2000) *''The Genius of Assassins'' (2002) *''Clear Rice Sickness'' (2003) *''Ledru's Disease'' (2003) *''Noumenal Fluke'' (2003) *''The House of Solemn Children (A Broken Story)'' (2003) *''Zschokke's Chancres'' (2003) *''The Scream'' (2003) *''Reminiscences'' (2003) *''The Life of Dr. Thackery T. Lambshead'' (1900-) (2003) *''The City of God'' (2004) *''Dr. Bondi's Methods'' (2007) *''I Will Teach You'' (2007) *''Ice Age of Dreams'' (2007) *''The Chaos Into Time'' (2007) *''The Death of Edgar Allan Poe'' (2007) *''The Depredations of Mur'' (2007) *''The Firebrands of Torment'' (2007) *''Two Fragments'' (2007) *''What He Chanced to Mould in Play'' (2007) *''Machines of Concrete Light and Dark'' (2009) *''Last Drink Bird Head'' (2009) *''Mr. Wosslynne'' (2009) *''Modern Cities Exist Only to Be Destroyed'' (2009) *''Violence, Child of Trust'' (2010) *''The Cadaver Is You'' (2011) *''Bread and Water'' (2011) *''This Is Tumor Speaking'' (2012) *''The Vile Game of Gunter and Landau'' (2012) *''Visiting Maze'' (2012) *''The Penury'' (2013) *''The Secrets of the Universe'' (2013) *''Unlanguage (excerpt)'' (2014) *''Learn to Kill'' (2014) *''Excerpt from Unlanguage'' (2015) *''Infestations'' (2015) *''The Figmon'' (2015) *''The Righteousness of Conical Men'' (2016) *''Rock n' Roll Death Squad'' (2017) *''Bet the Farm'' (2018) *''Their Silent Faces'' (2019) Cisco's work can also be found in The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases, ''Album Zutique,'' ''Leviathan III,'' ''Leviathan IV'', ''Phantom'', ''Lovecraft Unbound'', ''Last Drink Bird Head'', ''Cinnabar's Gnosis: A Homage to Gustav Meyrink'', ''Black Wings'', ''The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities'', ''The Master in the Cafe Morphine: A Homage to Mikhail Bulgakov'', ''Blood and Other Cravings'', ''DADAOISM'', ''This Hermetic Legislature: A Homage to Bruno Schulz'', and ''The Weird''. His essay on author Sadeq Hedayat, "Eternal Recurrence in ''The Blind Owl''," appeared in the journal, ''Iranian Studies'' Other critical articles by Cisco have appeared in ''The New Weird'', ''The Encyclopedia of the Vampire'', ''The Weird Fiction Review'', and ''Lovecraft Studies''.

Centipede Press Centipede Press is an American independent book and periodical publisher focusing on horror, weird tales, crime narratives, science fiction, gothic novels, fantasy art, and studies of literature, music and film. Its earliest imprints were Cocytus ...

has published a limited edition box set, composed of four novels and a collection of short fiction. All four novels are published for the first time in individual hardcover editions. Each book features a new introduction by

Jeffrey Ford Jeffrey Ford (born November 8, 1955) is an American writer in the fantastic genre tradition, although his works have spanned genres including fantasy, science fiction and mystery. His work is characterized by a sweeping imaginative power, humo ...

(''The Traitor''),

Rhys Hughes Rhys Henry Hughes (born 1966, Cardiff, Wales) is a Welsh fantasy writer and essayist. Career Born in Cardiff, Hughes has written in a variety of forms, from short stories to novels. His long novel ''Engelbrecht Again!'' is a sequel to Mauric ...

(''The Tyrant''),

Joseph S. Pulver Joseph S. Pulver Sr. (July 5, 1955 – April 24, 2020) was an author and poet, much of whose work falls within the horror fiction, noir fiction / hardboiled, and dark fantasy genres. He lived in Germany, and died from COPD and other issues in a ...

(''Secret Hours''),

Paul Tremblay Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...

(''The Golem'') and

Ann VanderMeer Ann VanderMeer (née Kennedy) is an American publisher and editor, and the second female editor of the horror magazine ''Weird Tales''. She is the founder of Buzzcity Press. Work from her press and related periodicals has won the British Fantasy ...

(''The Divinity Student''). Dim Shores published the novella ''The Knife Dance'' in 2016. The project was curated by

. Nightscape Press released Cisco's novella, ''Do You Mind if We Dance with Your Legs?'' in 2020 for their charitable chapbook series. One-third of all physical chapbook sales benefit the Los Angeles LGBT Center. Cisco was on the editorial board of ''Vastarien Literary Journal'' as associate editor.

Awards and nominations

''The Divinity Student'' won the

for Best First Novel of 1999. ''The Great Lover'' was nominated for a

in 2012 and was declared the Best Weird Novel of 2011 by the Weird Fiction Review. ''Unlanguage'' was nominated for Best Horror Novel by Locus in 2019.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cisco, Michael 1970 births Living people American horror writers American fantasy writers 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists Writers from New York City 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from New York (state) Weird fiction writers