P. Djèlí Clark

3 universes Last reviewed 2026-09-21

P. Djèlí Clark, born Dexter Gabriel in Queens, New York, in 1971, spent his formative years in Trinidad and Tobago before returning to the United States at age eight, subsequently living in Staten Island, Brooklyn, and Houston. He earned a bachelor's and master's degree in history from Texas State University in San Marcos and completed a PhD in history at Stony Brook University in 2016, with a dissertation on British emancipation and the American abolition movement. He works as an assistant professor of history at the University of Connecticut, specializing in African American history, alongside his fiction career. His pen name draws on the tradition of West African griots, storytellers and historians, while "Phenderson" honors his grandfather and "Clark" derives from his mother's maiden name, allowing him to separate his academic and creative writing. Clark is best known for his interconnected "Dead Djinn Universe," an alternate-history Egypt series that includes the novella "A Dead Djinn in Cairo" (2016), the novella Ring Shout (2020), and the novel A Master of Djinn (2021). A Master of Djinn won both the Nebula and Locus Awards in 2022, while Ring Shout won the Nebula, Locus, and British Fantasy Awards in 2021. He has received numerous additional nominations across the Hugo, World Fantasy, and other major science fiction and fantasy honors.

Universe(s)

Books

• A Dead Djinn in Cairo (2016) · The Dead Djinn Universe Core Canon
• The Haunting of Tram Car 015 (2019) · The Dead Djinn Universe Core Canon
• Ring Shout (2020) · Ring Shout Core Canon
• A Master of Djinn (2021) · The Dead Djinn Universe Core Canon
• The Dead Cat Tail Assassins (2024) · The Dead Cat Tail Assassins Core Canon

Aggregate across all universes

These are separate, unrelated universes; the totals below are plain sums of already-published per-universe facts, never a blended or averaged score across them. See each universe's own figures above.

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 5 books
• Award recognitions across all universes: 10 (9 won, 1 finalist mention)

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