P. Djèlí Clark

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.[1][2] At age eight, he returned to the US and lived in Staten Island and Brooklyn before moving to Houston, Texas, when he was 12.[3][1] 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.[4]

In 2011, Gabriel began publishing short stories variously as P. Djèlí Clark, Djèlí A. Clark, Phenderson Djèlí Clark, and A. Phenderson Clark.[2] 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.[1][5] He chose to use a nom de plume in order to separate his academic and literary work. In 2016, Clark sold his first major work, a short story titled "A Dead Djinn in Cairo," to Tor.com.[1] Since then, he has published novellas, short stories, and a novel.

• P. Djèlí Clark at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Official site
• Faculty page at the University of Connecticut