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 studiesatFordham 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.
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, NYPDforensic 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]
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]
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]
In Pursuit of Truth: Essays on the Philosophy of Karl Popper on the Occasion of his 80th Birthday (editor and contributor) with Forewords by Isaac Asimov and Helmut Schmidt (1982) Humanities Press ISBN0-391-02609-7[32]
Mind at Large: Knowing in the Technological Age (1988) JAI Press ISBN0-89232-816-9
Electronic Chronicles: Columns of the Changes in our Time (1992) Anamnesis Press ISBN0-9631203-3-6
Learning Cyberspace: Essays on the Evolution of Media and the New Education (1995) Anamnesis Press ISBN0-9631203-9-5[33]
The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution (1997) Routledge ISBN0-415-15785-4[34]
Bestseller: Wired, Analog, and Digital Writings (1999) Pulpless ISBN1-58445-033-9 [includes fiction and non-fiction]
Digital McLuhan: A Guide to the Information Millennium (1999) Routledge ISBN0-415-19251-X[35]
Realspace: The Fate of Physical Presence in the Digital Age, On and Off Planet (2003) Routledge ISBN0-415-27743-4[36]
Cellphone: The Story of the World's Most Mobile Medium (2004) Palgrave Macmillan ISBN1-4039-6041-0[37]
Touching the Face of the Cosmos: On the Intersection of Space Travel and Religion ed. Paul Levinson & Michael Waltemathe (2015/2016) Connected Editions/Fordham University Press ISBN978-1-56178-042-6 [includes fiction and non-fiction][5]
^Levinson, Paul (September 27, 2006). "An important cable vote". The New York Sun. Retrieved April 19, 2009.
^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.
^Major, Paul; Kugelberg, Johan; Daley, Michael P. (2012). Enjoy the experience : homemade records, 1958-1992 (First ed.). Los Angeles: Sinecure Books. ISBN978-1-938265-04-4. 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.
^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."
^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.
^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.
