Levinson Biography
Paul Levinson is an American novelist, singer-songwriter, media theorist, and writer of short stories. He is presently a professor of media studies and communications at Fordham University in New York City. Translations of his non-fiction books, short stories, and novels have been published in sixteen languages. He routinely appears as a guest commentator on major news networks and is quoted in news pieces.
How old is Levinson? – Age
Paul is 77 years old as of 25 March 2024. He was born in 1947 in The Bronx, New York, United States.
Levinson Family – Education
Levinson attended the City College of New York (CCNY) in the 1960s after graduating from Bronx’s Christopher Columbus High School. He went on to earn a BA in journalism from New York University in 1975, an MA in media studies from The New School in 1976, and a PhD in media ecology from New York University in 1979. Neil Postman served as his dissertation advisor for Human Replay: A Theory of the Evolution of Media (1979), his PhD dissertation.
Levinson Books – Novels
In addition to writing non-fiction on subjects such as the First Amendment, the history and future of communications media, the value of space exploration, and popular culture, Levinson also writes science fiction, fantasy, and sf/mystery hybrids with philosophical undertones. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Polish, Romanian, Macedonian, Croatian, Russian, Turkish, Persian, and Arabic are among the languages into which his writings have been translated. It’s Real Life: An Alternate History of The Beatles is Levinson’s most recent work. He co-edited the anthology of essays and science fiction stories Touching the Face of the Cosmos: On the Intersection of Space Travel and Religion.
Multiple Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, Prometheus, Sidewise, Edgar, and Audie Award nominations have been extended to Levinson. In 1998, Hugo, Sturgeon, and Nebula award finalists considered his novella Loose Ends. His book The Silk Code was named the Best First Novel of 1999 by Locus Award in 2000. Levinson’s novelette “The Chronology Protection Case” contained the first appearance of Dr. Phil D’Amato, the NYPD forensic detective at the center of The Silk Code (published in Analog magazine, September 1995). In the novelettes “The Copyright Notice Case” (Analog, April 1996) and “The Mendelian Lamp Case” (Analog, April 1997), as well as in the novels The Consciousness Plague (2002) and The Pixel Eye (2003), D’Amato made a comeback.
The Mystery Writers of America nominated a radioplay adapted from Levinson’s “The Chronology Protection Case” starring Paul Levinson and Jay Kensinger for the Edgar Award for Best Play of 2002. The Plot To Save Socrates, a time travel narrative, was his third book. The publication Entertainment Weekly referred to it as “challenging fun”. Unburning Alexandria, a follow-up to The Plot to Save Socrates, was his next book. An expanded version of Unburning Alexandria was released as an e-book in May 2013 after the first two chapters were published as a novelette in the November 2008 edition of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Chronica, the last book in the series, was released in December 2014.
Levinson Career
Since 1998, he has been an instructor at Fordham University. He was the department chair from 2002 to 2008 and has been a professor of communication and media studies since 2000. He had held 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 in addition to his previous roles as assistant (1977–1982) and associate (1982–88) professor at Farleigh Dickinson University. He has written more than 100 scholarly articles and delivered keynote speeches and lectures at conferences held at numerous universities.
He was a co-founder of Connected Education in 1985, which provided online master’s credit courses.From 1998 to 2001, he presided over the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as its president. Over 500 local, national, and international radio and television appearances have featured Levinson as a media, popular culture, and science fiction analyst. He is widely quoted in international newspapers and magazines, and his opinion pieces have been published in prestigious publications like The New York Sun, Newsday, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. From 2006 to 2008, he was featured in a brief weekly discussion about media-related news events and popular culture on Los Angeles’ KNX-AM Radio. The interview aired early on Sunday mornings. He has multiple blogs and podcasts.
Before entering academia, Levinson worked as a singer, composer, and record producer in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He produced records for the Vogues, Donna Marie of the Archies, June Valli, Jimmy Clanton, and Ellie Greenwich. He collaborated with Wolfman Jack and Murray the K as a radio producer. More than a hundred of his compositions have been released by well-known music publishers, such as Sunbury/RCA, Bobby Darin’s TM Music, Belwin Mills/Warner Brothers, Bourne, and Chappell. Paul Leka, Jimmy Wisner, and Ellie Greenwich produced his song recordings for other musicians. Columbia, Decca, Philips, Atlantic, Buddah, and London Records are just a few of the record labels that have released songs that he composed, performed, and/or produced.
Twice Upon a Rhyme was his main work; it was an LP released on HappySad Records in 1972 and later reissued on CD. He also served as composer and producer for the album. His trio The Other Voices recorded and Atlantic Records released his song “Hung Up On Love” (co-writer Mikie Harris, produced by Ellie Greenwich and Mike Rashkow) in 1968. The song was featured on Rhino Handmade’s Come to the Sunshine: Soft Pop Nuggets from the WEA Vaults compilation CD, which Andrew Sandoval compiled in 2004. On numerous records by The Other Voices, he provided falsetto harmony vocals.
Co-written in the 1970s with Ed Fox, his songs “Merri Goes Round” and “Looking for Sunsets (In the Early Morning)” were covered by Sundial Symphony (Don Frankel and Robbie Rist) and published by Big Stir Records in 2019. 2020 saw the publication of his most recent album of original music, Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time, via Old Bear Records and Light In The Attic Records.