Palumbo, Donald E. 1949–

PERSONAL: Born January 17, 1949, in Pittsburgh, PA; son of Emanuel John (in business) and Florence (a teacher; maiden name, Orlando) Palumbo; married Joan Reisman, 1972 (divorced, 1976); married Julie Bell, 1978 (divorced, 1990); married May 8, 1992; wife's name Susan Elizabeth (a homemaker); children: (second marriage) Anthony D., David V. Ethnicity: "White." Education: University of Chicago, A.B., 1970; University of Michigan, Ph.D., 1976. Hobbies and other interests: Science fiction literature, films, and games; travel.

ADDRESSES: Home—218 Churchill Dr., Greenville, NC 27858. Office—Department of English, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858. E-mail—donaldpalumbo@earthlink.net; palumbod@mail.ecu.edu.

CAREER: Writer. Lamar University, Beaumont, TX, adjunct instructor in English, 1976–78; Northern Michigan University, Marquette, associate professor of English, 1978–83; Lorain County Community College, Elyria, OH, chair of language and humanities division, 1983–87; Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, Shippensburg, professor of English, 1987–92; East Carolina University, Greenville, professor of English, 1992–. Advisor to publishers.

MEMBER: International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (member of board of governors, 1982–83; president, 1989–92), Popular Culture Association (chair of comic and comic art area, 1980–91; chair of film area, 1991–).

AWARDS, HONORS: Robert A. Collins Distinguished Service Award, International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, 1996.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) Erotic Universe: Sexuality and Fantastic Literature, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1986.

(Editor) Eros in the Mind's Eye: Sexuality and the Fantastic in Art and Film, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1986.

Chaos Theory, Asimov's "Foundations" and "Robots," and Herbert's "Dune": The Fractal Aesthetic of Epic Science Fiction, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 2002.

WORK IN PROGRESS: The Monomyth in American Science Fiction (tentative title), a study of both literature and film, completion expected in 2008.

SIDELIGHTS: Donald E. Palumbo told CA: "All of the books I have written and edited are scholarly studies of science fiction literature, film, and art; they all stem from my lifelong love of science fiction. My recent book, Chaos Theory, Asimov's "Foundations" and "Robots," and Herbert's "Dune": The Fractal Aesthetic of Epic Science Fiction, was written to provide a scholarly study of two prominent American authors who are not sufficiently recognized (especially in the case of Isaac Asimov) for being highly sophisticated structuralists whose works echo the scientific premises from which they extrapolate on every level of scale, from metaphors to plot structures to multivolume series architecture. Also, in both cases, their most popular works anticipate and revolve around chaos theory long before this paradigm was articulated by the scientific community: ten years before, for Frank Herbert, and thirty years before, for Asimov. These two writers, while world-famous, deserve far more recognition for their visionary artistry than they have received."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Extrapolation, winter, 2003, Donald M. Hassler, review of Chaos Theory, Asimov's "Foundations" and "Robots," and Herbert's "Dune": The Fractal Aesthetic of Epic Science Fiction, p. 462.

Utopian Studies, winter, 2003, James W. Maertens, review of Chaos Theory, Asimov's "Foundations" and "Robots," and Herbert's "Dune," p. 244.