The Para/literary & the Post/Transgressive: A Samuel R. Delany Reading Group Series
This fall 2026 will be focused on Samuel Delany’s Minor Writings, part of a series of reading groups centered on the writing and archive of Samuel R. Delany titled The Para/Literary and the Post/Transgressive, spanning Spring 2026 to Spring 2027. Attendance to all is not required.
Following Lost & Found’s catalyzing directive to “follow the person,” we will follow Delany beyond his most well-disseminated novels, to delve into his less circulated, shorter, unpublished, and/or out of print works. These reading groups will form a collective archival journey constellating these texts to see what connections and discoveries we uncover by reading these works alongside and through each other.
Samuel Delany’s Minor Writings, Fall 2026
“Like all supplements, inherent within them is the possibility for any number of power reversals” writes Samuel R. Delany in his preface to his collection Shorter Views: Queer Thoughts & The Politics of the Paraliterary. The word “supplement” comes from the Latin supplementum, meaning “that with which anything is made full or whole, something added to supply a deficiency.” This reading group will perform a textual power reversal to center the supplement, deeply engaging his shorter and lesser-known essays and prose works. From the vicissitudes of utterability across social spaces and relational formations to intimacy and aging to his exploration of the politics of poetic form and beyond, readers both familiar and unfamiliar with his more highly disseminated works alike have much to gain from thinking alongside Delany thinking alongside the literary and its relation to the social-linguistic universes he traverses.
Reading list
Readings include “The Gamble,” “Ash Wednesday,” “On The Unspeakable: The Capri Theater 1987,” “Sword & Sorcery, S/M, and the Economics of Inadequation: The Camera Obscura Interview,” “Settling Future Limits: An Interview by Pat Califia,” “Some Queer Notions about Race,” “Some Remarks on Narrative and Technology or: Poetry and Truth” and more.
Eligibility and How to Apply to Join
Members from the general public, in addition to all CUNY Graduate students, faculty, and staff, are eligible to apply. Preference may be given to CUNY affiliates. There is limited capacity; please apply for this Fall 2026 reading group below through this short questionnaire here or below by Monday, September 28th, 2026.
Meeting dates/schedule
This weekly meeting group will begin Mid-October through early November consist of six sessions on Wednesdays from 6:30-8:00 pm at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Facilitator
Rebecca Teich
Lost & Found Archival Research Fellow
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