P. Djèlí Clark is the pen name of Dexter Gabriel, an American speculative fiction writer and historian. He is an assistant professor in the department of history at the University of Connecticut. Clark uses his pen name to differentiate his literary work from his academic work and has also published under the name A. Phenderson Clark. The pen name "Djèlí" references the griots, traditional Western African storytellers, historians and poets, reflecting Clark's engagement with historical and cultural themes in his fiction.