Sam Weller (journalist)

Sam Weller (born January 31, 1967) is an American journalist, and author of fiction and nonfiction, best known for being writer Ray Bradbury's authorized biographer. Weller's 2005 book, The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury (HarperCollins) is a full-biography while his 2010 Listen to the Echoes, The Ray Bradbury Interviews (Melville House Publishing) is a collection of interviews, photos, mementos, and artifacts. Weller's 2014 Ray Bradbury: The Last Interview: And Other Conversations (Melville House Publishing) features his last interview with Bradbury, and recounts Bradbury's influences, creative processes, and love for writing and reading.

Sam Weller
Born	(1967-01-31) January 31, 1967 (age 55) Lake Forest, Illinois
Occupation	Author, journalist, professor, lecturer
Nationality	American
Genre	Biography, journalism, essays, fiction, arts criticism
Website
www.samweller.net

Biography

Weller was born in Lake Forest, Illinois. His The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury was a Los Angeles Times best-seller, winner of the 2005 Society of Midland Authors Award for Best Biography, and a Bram Stoker Award finalist. The companion book, Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews, was published by Melville House/Stop Smiling Books in 2010 and was also a Bram Stoker Award finalist.. With Mort Castle, Weller co-edited the anthology Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury (William Morrow Paperbacks, July 2012), winner of the 2013 Bram Stoker Award for "Superior Achievement in an Anthology."^{[citation needed]}

In 2014, Weller edited Ray Bradbury: The Last Interview (Melville House) featuring his final, intimate conversations with the writer. Also in 2014, IDW Comics released a five-issue Shadow Show comic book series curated and largely scripted by Weller and Mort Castle.^{[citation needed]}

Weller is the former Midwest correspondent for Publishers Weekly magazine. He has written for The Paris Review, All Things Considered, Slate Magazine, The Huffington Post, National Public Radio and The Los Angeles Review of Books.^[1]

Weller's short fiction has appeared in numerous books, literary journals and magazines, including the Chicago Reader, Printers Row Journal, Hairtrigger, and Rosebud. His pop-cultural essays have appeared in Post Road, Annalemma, and PopMatters,^[2] among many other publications. Weller was an associate professor in the Department of Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago.^[3][4]

In September 2020, Weller's critically acclaimed collection of short stories, Dark Black, was published by Hat & Beard Press.^[5][6] In 2022, while appearing as a guest on the Morbidly Deceased podcast, Weller stated he was working on a screenplay with a development chief at Paramount Pictures, and he was co-producing a narrative podcast that would be released in 2023.^[7]

In February 2022, Cara Dehnert, a former Columbia College Chicago professor, told NBC 5 Chicago that a relationship with a colleague quickly spiraled and that she was the victim of rape and manipulation.^[8] The colleague in question was named in her widely circulated post on Medium, and was later identified by the Columbia Chronicle newspaper as Sam Weller when the college retained a law firm to investigate this and other allegations against him.^[9] Weller was issued a Notice of Dismissal on July 8, 2022, as a result of the investigation conducted by the law firm Mayer Brown LLP. In an email statement, President and CEO Kwang-Wu Kim announced, "Based on Mayer Brown's findings that Professor Weller engaged in conduct that violated the college's sexual harassment and other policies, Provost Marcella David concluded that the conduct warranted termination."^[10]

Bibliography

• Secret Chicago: The Unique Guidebook to Chicago's Hidden Sites, Sounds & Tastes (2000)
• The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury (2005)
• Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews (2010)
• Shadow Show: All New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury (2012, editor with Mort Castle)
• "Roadside Cross" (Short Story, 2014)
• Ray Bradbury: The Last Interview: And Other Conversations (2014)
• "Shadow Show Comic #3" (2015)
• "Shadow Show Comic #4" (2015)
• "Shadow Show Comic #5" (2015)
• "Shadow Show: Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury" Graphic Novel (2015)
• Dark Black (2020)

References

1. "Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. April 18, 2021. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
2. "How KISS Should End It All". PopMatters. June 22, 2021. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
3. "Sam Weller - Faculty - Academics - Columbia College Chicago". www.colum.edu. Retrieved February 16, 2022.
4. "English and Creative Writing Faculty". Columbia College Chicago. Retrieved February 16, 2022.
5. https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Black-Sam-Weller/dp/1732734542/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1W3KUQ993T2TG&keywords=dark+black+sam+weller&qid=1672075127&sprefix=dark+black+sam+weller%2Caps%2C98&sr=8-1
6. "Dark Black by undefined". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
7. "Morbidly Deceased: Episode 36 : Kindred Spirits with Sam Weller on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
8. Sutter, Lexi. "Columbia College Professor to 'Step Away' From Teaching Amid Sexual Assault Probe". NBC Chicago. Retrieved July 13, 2022.
9. Cutinello, Camryn (February 19, 2022). "BREAKING: Professor accused of sexual assault to 'step away' from teaching during Columbia investigation". The Columbia Chronicle. Retrieved July 13, 2022.
10. Jennings, Noah (July 9, 2022). "BREAKING: College terminates tenured professor accused of sexual assault". The Columbia Chronicle. Retrieved July 13, 2022.

• 2005 Interview with Bookslut
• 2010 Interview with The Paris Review
• 2014 Interview with Carl Alves
• 2020 [1]