Paul Levinson

Last updated

Paul Levinson
PL 3 - 300 dpi small cropped.jpg
Levinson in 2019
Born (1947-03-25) March 25, 1947 (age 77)
Bronx, New York, U.S.
Education Christopher Columbus High School
City College of New York
New York University (BA, PhD)
The New School (MA)
Occupation(s)Media theorist, novelist, singer-songwriter, short story writer

Paul Levinson (born March 25, 1947) [1] is an American media theorist, novelist, singer-songwriter, and short story writer. He currently serves as professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University in New York City. His novels, short fiction, and non-fiction works have been translated into sixteen languages. He is frequently quoted in news articles and appears as a guest commentator on major news outlets.

Contents

Education

Paul Levinson graduated from Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx, attended the City College of New York (CCNY) in the 1960s, and received a BA in journalism from New York University in 1975; an MA in Media Studies from The New School in 1976; and a PhD from New York University in media ecology in 1979. His doctoral dissertation, Human Replay: A Theory of the Evolution of Media (1979), was mentored by Neil Postman. [2]

Published works

Levinson writes science fiction, fantasy, and sf/mystery hybrids with philosophical undertones as well as non-fiction about the history and future of communications media, the First Amendment, the importance of space exploration, and popular culture themes. [3] His work has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Polish, Romanian, Macedonian, Croatian, Russian, Turkish, Persian, and Arabic. [4] Levinson's recent book, Touching the Face of the Cosmos: On the Intersection of Space Travel and Religion, is an anthology of essays and science fiction stories which he edited with Michael Waltemathe, [5] and his latest novel is It's Real Life: An Alternate History of The Beatles. [6] [7]

Levinson has received multiple nominations for the Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, Prometheus, Sidewise, Edgar and Audie Awards. His novella Loose Ends was a 1998 finalist for a Hugo, a Sturgeon, and a Nebula. In 2000, his novel The Silk Code won the Locus Award for Best First Novel of 1999. [8] The central character of The Silk Code, NYPD forensic detective Dr. Phil D'Amato, [9] made his first appearance in Levinson's novelette, "The Chronology Protection Case", (published in Analog magazine, September 1995). D'Amato returned in "The Copyright Notice Case" novelette (Analog, April 1996), "The Mendelian Lamp Case" novelette (Analog, April 1997), [10] and in subsequent novels The Consciousness Plague (2002), and The Pixel Eye (2003). An adaptation of Levinson's "The Chronology Protection Case" (radioplay by Mark Shanahan with Paul Levinson & Jay Kensinger) was nominated by the Mystery Writers of America for the Edgar Award for Best Play of 2002.

His next novel was The Plot To Save Socrates , a time travel story. Entertainment Weekly magazine called it "challenging fun". [11] His subsequent novel was Unburning Alexandria, a sequel to The Plot To Save Socrates. The first two chapters of Unburning Alexandria appeared as a novelette in the November 2008 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact , [12] and the expanded novel was published as an e-book in May 2013. [13] The concluding novel in the series, titled Chronica, was published in December 2014. [14]

Educational and professional activities

He has taught at Fordham University since 1998; he has been Professor of communication and media studies since 2000, and was chair of the department from 2002 to 2008. He had previously been Assistant (1977–82) and then Associate (1982–88) Professor at Farleigh Dickinson University, and had adjunct positions at The New School, Hofstra University, St. John's University, Polytechnic University of New York, Audrey Cohen College and the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute. [15] He has given lectures and keynote addresses at conferences at many universities and authored over 100 scholarly articles. [16]

In 1985 he co-founded Connected Education, offering online courses for Masters credit. [17]

He served as president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America from 1998 to 2001. [3]

Media presentations

Levinson has been interviewed more than 500 times on local, national and international television and radio as a commentator on media, popular culture, and science fiction. [18] He is frequently quoted in newspapers and magazines around the world and his op-eds have appeared in such major papers as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution , [19] [20] New York's Newsday , [21] and The New York Sun . [22] He was interviewed in a short weekly spot early Sunday mornings on KNX-AM Radio in Los Angeles, from 2006 to 2008 on media-related news events and popular culture. He has several podcasts and blogs. In April 2009, The Chronicle of Higher Education named him ("PaulLev") one of Twitter's ten "High Fliers". [23]

Musical and recording activities

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, prior to his academic career, Levinson was a songwriter, singer, and record producer with recordings by the Vogues, Donna Marie of the Archies, June Valli, Jimmy Clanton, and Ellie Greenwich. As a radio producer he worked with Murray the K and Wolfman Jack. [24]

He wrote over 100 songs published by major music publishers including Bourne, Chappell, Belwin Mills/Warner Brothers, Bobby Darin's TM Music, and Sunbury/RCA. Recordings of his songs were produced by Ellie Greenwich, Jimmy Wisner, and Paul Leka for other artists. Songs he wrote, performed and/or produced were released on record labels including Columbia, Decca, Philips, Atlantic, Buddah and London Records. [25]

He was principal artist, writer, and producer for Twice Upon a Rhyme , a 1972 LP released on HappySad Records [26] [27] and subsequently re-issued on CD. [28] [29] His song "Hung Up On Love" (co-writer Mikie Harris, produced by Ellie Greenwich and Mike Rashkow) was recorded by his trio The Other Voices and released on Atlantic Records in 1968; it was included in Rhino Handmade's 2004 compilation CD Come to the Sunshine: Soft Pop Nuggets from the WEA Vaults , compiled by Andrew Sandoval. He sang falsetto harmony on many of The Other Voices' recordings.

His songs "Merri Goes Round" and "Looking for Sunsets (In the Early Morning)", both co-written with Ed Fox in the 1970s, were recorded by Sundial Symphony (Robbie Rist and Don Frankel) and released by Big Stir Records in 2019. [30] His recent album of new songs, Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time, was released by Old Bear Records and Light In The Attic Records in 2020. [31]

Selected bibliography

Novels

Non-fiction books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James White (author)</span> Northern Irish science fiction author (1928–1999)

James White was a Northern Irish author of science fiction novellas, short stories and novels. He was born in Belfast and returned there after spending some early years in Canada. After a few years working in the clothing industry, he worked at Short Brothers Ltd., an aircraft company based in Belfast, from 1965 until taking early retirement in 1984 as a result of diabetes. White married Margaret Sarah Martin, another science fiction fan, in 1955 and the couple had three children. He died of a stroke.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Sheffield</span> English-American mathematician, physicist and science fiction writer (1935–2002)

Charles Sheffield, was an English-born mathematician, physicist and science-fiction writer who served as a President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and of the American Astronautical Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cory Doctorow</span> Canadian-British blogger, journalist and author (born 1971)

Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of its licences for his books. Some common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert J. Sawyer</span> Canadian science fiction writer (born 1960)

Robert James Sawyer is a Canadian and American science fiction writer. He has had 24 novels published and his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories, On Spec, Nature, and numerous anthologies. He has won many writing awards, including the best-novel Nebula Award (1995), the best-novel Hugo Award (2003), the John W. Campbell Memorial Award (2006), the Robert A. Heinlein Award (2017), and more Aurora Awards than anyone else in history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Wolverton</span> American speculative fiction writer (1957–2022)

John David Wolverton, better known by his pen names Dave Wolverton and David Farland, was an American author, editor, and instructor of online writing workshops and groups. He wrote in several genres but was known best for his science fiction and fantasy works. Books in his Runelords series hit the New York Times bestsellers list.

Karl Schroeder is a Canadian science fiction author and a professional futurist. His novels present far-future speculations on topics such as nanotechnology, terraforming, augmented reality, and interstellar travel, and are deeply philosophical. More recently he also focuses on near-future topics. Several of his short stories feature the character Gennady Malianov.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Watts (author)</span> Canadian science fiction author (born 1958)

Peter Watts is a Canadian science fiction author. He specializes in hard science fiction. He earned a Ph.D from the University of British Columbia in 1991 from the Department of Zoology and Resource Ecology. He went on to hold several academic research and teaching positions, and worked as a marine-mammal biologist. He began publishing fiction around the time he finished graduate school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">F. Paul Wilson</span> American author and medical doctor (born 1946)

Francis Paul Wilson is an American medical doctor and author of horror, adventure, medical thrillers, science fiction, and other genres of literary fiction. His books include the Repairman Jack novels—including Ground Zero, The Tomb, and Fatal Error—the Adversary cycle—including The Keep—and a young adult series featuring the teenage Jack. Wilson has won the Prometheus Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the Inkpot Award from the San Diego ComiCon, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers of America, among other honors. He lives in Wall, New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Scalzi</span> American science fiction writer

John Michael Scalzi II is an American science fiction author and former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He is best known for his Old Man's War series, three novels of which have been nominated for the Hugo Award, and for his blog Whatever, where he has written on a number of topics since 1998. He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 2008 based predominantly on that blog, which he has also used for several charity drives. His novel Redshirts won the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel. He has written non-fiction books and columns on diverse topics such as finance, video games, films, astronomy, writing and politics, and served as a creative consultant for the TV series Stargate Universe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Duncan (writer)</span> American science fiction & fantasy writer

Andy Duncan is an American science fiction and fantasy writer whose work frequently deals with Southern U.S. themes.

Paul Claiborne Park is an American science fiction author and fantasy author. He taught literature and writing in the Williams College English Department and the Graduate Program in Art History, retiring as a senior lecturer in 2022. He also taught at the Clarion West writing workshop and the Clarion Workshop and was an instructor at Clarion West in 2011.

<i>The Plot to Save Socrates</i> 2006 novel by Paul Levinson

The Plot to Save Socrates is a time travel novel by Paul Levinson, first published in 2006. Starting in the near future, the novel also has scenes set in the ancient world and Victorian New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phil D'Amato</span> Fictional character

Dr. Phil D’Amato is the central character in three science fiction mystery novelettes and three novels written by Paul Levinson. The first novelette, "The Chronology Protection Case", was adapted into a radio play which was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. The first novel, The Silk Code, won the Locus Award for the Best First Novel of 1999. The fictional D'Amato, who has a PhD in forensic science, is a detective with the NYPD.

"Ender's Game" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Orson Scott Card. It first appeared in the August 1977 issue of Analog magazine and was later expanded into the 1985 novel Ender's Game. Although it serves as the foundation of the Ender's Game series, the novelette is not considered to be properly a part of the Ender's Game universe, as there are many discrepancies in continuity between it and the novel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Robinette Kowal</span> American author and puppeteer (born 1969)

Mary Robinette Kowal is an American author, translator, art director, and puppeteer. She has worked on puppetry for shows including Jim Henson Productions and the children's show LazyTown. As an author, she is a four-time Hugo Award winner, and served as the president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America from 2019-2021.

Richard Arnold Wilber is an American author, poet, editor and professor. His novel, Alien Morning, was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel of 2017. His other novels include The Cold Road and Rum Point. He has published more than fifty short stories, novelettes or novellas in magazines including Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Stonecoast Review, Gulf Stream Review and Pulphouse and in numerous anthologies. His other works include the memoir, My Father's Game: Life, Death, Baseball, several college textbooks, including Media Matters,, Modern Media Writing, Magazine Feature Writing and "The Writer's Handbook for Editing and Revision" and the collections Rambunctious: Nine Tales of Determination, The Wandering Warriors, Where Garagiola Waits, To Leuchars and The Secret Skater.

This is a complete list of works by American science fiction and fantasy author L. E. Modesitt Jr.

This is complete list of works by American science fiction and fantasy author Fred Saberhagen.

This is a list of books by British hard science fiction, Lovecraftian horror, and space opera author Charles Stross.

This is a list of works by or about Paul Levinson, American author.

References

  1. ↑ "Levinson, Paul". Revised June 7, 2014. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (sf-encyclopedia.com). Retrieved 20 July 2015. Entry by 'JC', John Clute.
  2. ↑ Levinson, Paul (February 1979). Human Replay: A Theory of the Evolution of Media. #79 18,852. Vol. 40/3. University Microfilms, Int.
  3. 1 2 Gale Reference Team (2007). "Biography: Levinson, Paul (1947–)". Contemporary Authors Online. Thomson Gale.
  4. ↑ Jandrić, Petar (2017). Learning in the Age of Digital Reason. Springer. p. 273. ISBN   978-94-6351-077-6 . Retrieved October 9, 2017.
  5. 1 2 Lee, Robert A. (February 7, 2016). "Book Review: Touching the Face of the Cosmos - National Space Society". National Space Society. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  6. ↑ Ricci, Charlie. "It's Real Life: An Alternate History Of The Beatles - A Short Story, Radio Play And Full Length Novel By Paul Levinson (2022 and 2024)". Bloggerhythms. Retrieved May 21, 2024.
  7. ↑ "It's Real Life: A Book Launch for Paul Levinson's New Novel". nysgs.org. New York Society for General Semantics. Retrieved May 21, 2024.
  8. ↑ "sfadb: Locus Awards 2000". www.sfadb.com.
  9. ↑ Schulz, J. (December 1, 1999). "Biodetective". Wired. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  10. ↑ "Locus Online: New Books Listings". www.locusmag.com. September 1999.
  11. ↑ Russo, Tom (February 24, 2006). "Book review: The Plot to Save Socrates". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved April 19, 2009.
  12. ↑ Tomaino, Sam (September 27, 2008). "Review of Analog Science Fiction and Fact – November 2008 – Vol. CXXVIII No.11". SFRevu. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  13. ↑ Levinson, Paul (2013). Unburning Alexandria. ISBN   978-1-56178-012-9.
  14. ↑ Levinson, Paul (2014). Chronica. Connected Editions. ISBN   978-1-56178-031-0.
  15. ↑ Curriculum Vitae
  16. ↑ "Managing the Frenzy: Translating Communication Skills to New Media". Communicators Forum. University of Minnesota. May 2000. Archived from the original on January 24, 2008. Retrieved April 19, 2009.
  17. ↑ Withrow, Frank (June 1, 1997). "Technology in Education and the Next Twenty-Five Years – THE Journal". T.H.E. Journal. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
  18. ↑ Goldman, Norm (December 2007). "A conversation with well-known author Paul Levinson". Book Pleasures: Meet the Author. Knowledge Base. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved April 19, 2009.
  19. ↑ Levinson, Paul (February 15, 2003). "Op-Ed: The FCC and Halftime". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. pp. Q2.
  20. ↑ Levinson, Paul (October 12, 2003). "Op-Ed: Schwarzenegger and the fame game". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. pp. C1.
  21. ↑ Levinson, Paul (April 13, 2009). "Is Spitzer fit to be a pundit?". Newsday. Retrieved April 19, 2009.
  22. ↑ Levinson, Paul (September 27, 2006). "An important cable vote". The New York Sun. Retrieved April 19, 2009.
  23. ↑ Young, Jeffrey R. (April 10, 2009). "Ten High Fliers on Twitter". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Vol.55, Issue 31. pp. A10. Retrieved April 19, 2009.
  24. ↑ "Mevio: Personality-driven entertainment". Related information: Levinson News Clips. Mevio. Archived from the original on January 29, 2013. Retrieved April 19, 2009.
  25. ↑ "Paul Levinson". Modern Music Maker. March 23, 2018.
  26. ↑ "Happysad debuts its first album". Billboard. September 30, 1972. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
  27. ↑ Major, Paul; Kugelberg, Johan; Daley, Michael P. (2012). Enjoy the experience : homemade records, 1958-1992 (First ed.). Los Angeles: Sinecure Books. ISBN   978-1-938265-04-4. I've seen multitudes of folkpsych wannabes hyped to the skies for their garage charm in euro lists that don't hold a candle to this baby.
  28. ↑ "Twice Upon a Rhyme". RateYourMusic. Retrieved February 2, 2018.
  29. ↑ Mathews, Austin. "Twice Upon a Rhyme". Shindig, January–February 2011. "Superb fuzz guitar irresistibly drizzled across several tracks ... a memorable personality indelibly locked inside the grooves ... the perfect sound track for a lethargic spring day."
  30. ↑ DeAngelis, Mike. "Big Stir Singles: The Third Wave". There Once Was A Note. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
  31. ↑ Breznikar, Klemen (February 3, 2020). "'Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time' by Paul Levinson". It's Psychedelic Baby! Magazine .
  32. ↑ Freese, Lee (March 1984). "Book Reviews : In Pursuit of Truth: Essays in Honour of Karl Popper's 80th Birthday. Paul Levinson, editor (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1982) 337 pp". Knowledge. 5 (3): 405–409. doi:10.1177/107554708400500308.
  33. ↑ Percival, Ray (November 18, 1995). "Carry on learning: Learning Cyberspace". New Scientist. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  34. ↑ Tympas, Aristotle. "Paul Levinson, The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution [Book Review]," in IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 76-76, July-Sept. 1999, doi: 10.1109/MAHC.1999.778991.
  35. ↑ Headlam, Bruce (July 1, 1999). "Digital McLuhan: A Guide to the Information Millennium by Paul Levinson". The New York Times. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  36. ↑ "Nonfiction Book Review: Realspace: The Fate of Physical Presence in the Digital Age, on and Off Planet by Paul Levinson, Author Routledge $34.95 (192p) ISBN 978-0-415-27743-3". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  37. ↑ Brereton, Pat (June 2005). "Reviews : Paul Levinson, Cellphone: The story of the world's most mobile medium and how it transformed everything! (New York: Palgrave, 2004), 221 pp. ISBN: 1 4039 6041 0 (pbk". Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. 11 (2): 116–118. doi:10.1177/135485650501100212. ISSN   1354-8565. S2CID   143650864.
  38. ↑ Burzynski Bullard, Sue (October 2011). "Book Review – New New Media by Paul Levinson". ResearchGate.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.