Editing Michael Cisco

{{short description|American novelist}}

{{Infobox writer
| name             = Michael Cisco
| imagesize        = 
| caption          = 
| pseudonym        = 
| birth_date       = {{Birth date and age|1970|10|13}}
| birth_place      = [[Glendale, California]], U.S.
| death_date       = 
| death_place      = 
| occupation       = {{flatlist|
* Novelist
* short story writer
* academic
}}
| nationality      = American
| period           = 1999–present
| genre            = [[Horror Fiction]], [[dark fantasy]], [[weird fiction]], [[surrealism]], [[phantasmagoria]]
| subject          = 
| movement         = [[New Weird]]
| alma_mater       = [[New York University]]
| spouse           = {{marriage|Farah Rose Smith|2019}}
| partner          = 
| children         = 
| relatives        = 
| signature        = 
| website          = {{URL|http://michaelcisco.com/}}
| image            = Michael Cisco.jpg
}}

'''Michael Cisco''' (born October 13, 1970) is an American writer, [[Gilles Deleuze|Deleuzian]] academic, and teacher currently living in [[New York City]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Magazine |first=The London |date=2020-09-08 |title=Interview {{!}} Michael Cisco on Weird Fiction, Cheerful Nihilism and Sex in Literature |url=https://thelondonmagazine.org/interview-michael-cisco-on-weird-fiction-cheerful-nihilism-and-sex-in-literature/ |access-date=2023-04-22 |website=The London Magazine |language=en-GB}}</ref>  He is best known for his [[debut novel|first novel]], ''The Divinity Student,'' winner of the [[International Horror Guild Award]] for Best First Novel of 1999.  His novel ''The Great Lover'' was nominated for the 2011 [[Shirley Jackson Award]] for Best Novel of the Year, and declared the Best Weird Novel of 2011 by the [[Weird Fiction Review]].<ref>[http://weirdfictionreview.com/2011/12/wfrs-book-gift-recommendations-for-the-weirdie-in-your-life/ Weird Fiction Review]</ref>  He has described his work as "de-genred" fiction.<ref name= "interview">{{cite news |last=Moreland |first=Sean |url= http://pstdarkness.com/2013/11/22/an-interview-with-michael-cisco/ |title=An Interview with Michael Cisco |work=Postscripts to Darkness |date=2013-11-22 }}</ref>

== Biography ==
Michael Terry Cisco was born and raised in [[Glendale, California]]. His father [[Terry Cisco]] worked as an inventor and principal scientist for the [[Hughes Aircraft Company]] and his mother worked as photographer and graphic designer for Glendale Community College's Public Information Office. Cisco attended [[Sarah Lawrence College]] as an undergraduate, where he received his [[bachelor's degree]] in 1992. As part of his undergraduate studies, Cisco studied at [[Oxford University]] for one year. He obtained his [[master's degree]] from [[SUNY Buffalo]] in 1994 and both his Masters of Philosophy in 2002 and PhD in 2004 at [[New York University]]. Cisco is a professor at the [[City University of New York]].

== Bibliography ==

=== Novels ===
*''The Divinity Student'' (1999) {{ISBN|0-9652200-1-X}}
*''The Tyrant'' (2003) {{ISBN|1-894815-85-8}}
*''The Golem'' (2004) 
*''The Traitor'' (2007) {{ISBN|0-8095-7235-4}}
*''The Narrator'' (2010) {{ISBN|978-0-9846037-4-9}}
*''The Great Lover'' (2011) {{ISBN|978-1-907681-06-6}}
*''Celebrant'' (2012) {{ISBN|978-1907681158}}
*''Member'' (2013) {{ISBN|978-1907681233}}
*''Animal Money'' (2015) {{ISBN|978-1621052128}}
*''Wretch of the Sun'' (2016) {{ISBN|978-161498-166-4}}
*''Unlanguage'' (2018) {{ISBN|978-1621052661}}
*''Ethics'' (2022) 
*''Pest'' (2023)
*''Black Brane'' (2025)

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

=== Collections ===
*''The San Veneficio Canon (The Divinity Student, The Golem)'' (2004) {{ISBN|1-894815-68-8}}
*''Secret Hours'' (2007) {{ISBN|0-9789911-0-9}}
*''Antisocieties'' (2021) {{ISBN|0-5788368-8-2}}
*''Visiting Maze'' (2023) {{ISBN|978-1-61347-326-9}}

=== 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)
*''The Two Musics'' (2024)

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''<ref>[http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/00210862.asp Iranian Studies] (2010) {{ISSN|1475-4819}} (electronic) {{ISSN|0021-0862}} (paper) {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110516203903/http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/00210862.asp |date=May 16, 2011 }}</ref> 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]] 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]] (''The Traitor''), [[Rhys Hughes]] (''The Tyrant''), [[Joseph S. Pulver]] (''Secret Hours''), [[Paul G. Tremblay]] (''The Golem'') and [[Ann VanderMeer]] (''The Divinity Student'').

Dim Shores published the novella ''The Knife Dance'' in 2016. The project was curated by [[Joseph S. Pulver]].

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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://grimscribepress.com/about/|title = Editorial Board|date = 4 November 2015}}</ref>

==Awards and nominations==
''The Divinity Student'' won the [[International Horror Guild Award]] for Best First Novel of 1999.

''The Great Lover'' was nominated for a [[Shirley Jackson Award]] 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 Magazine]] in 2019.

''Weird Fiction: A Genre Study'' was nominated for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction at the 2023 [[Bram Stoker Awards]].

==See also==
{{portal|Novels}}
*[[List of horror fiction authors]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
<!-- per [[WP:ELMINOFFICIAL]], choose one official website only -->
* {{Official website|http://www.michaelcisco.com/}}
*{{isfdb name|id=Michael_Cisco|name=Michael Cisco}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cisco, Michael}}
[[Category:1970 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American horror writers]]
[[Category:American fantasy writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century American novelists]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:Novelists from New York City]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]
[[Category:American weird fiction writers]]