Philip K. Dick: Essays of the Here and Now is a volume of critical essays edited by David Sandner, published by McFarland as part of their Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy series, under the general editorship of Donald E. Palumbo and C.W. Sullivan III.
The text excerpt reveals an extensive list of companion volumes in the McFarland series, including Jennifer Simkins's The Science Fiction Mythmakers: Religion, Science and Philosophy in Wells, Clarke, Dick and Herbert (2016), which directly engages with Dick's religious and philosophical dimensions.
The collection's title signals its focus on Dick's engagement with present-tense reality rather than futuristic speculation. This framing reflects a key insight of Dick scholarship: that despite writing science fiction set in future worlds, Dick's fundamental concern was always with the nature of immediate, lived experience. His futures served as laboratories for testing questions about perception, authenticity, and the constructed nature of everyday reality.
As a McFarland academic publication, this volume represents the established institutional presence of Dick studies within the broader field of science fiction scholarship, confirming his canonical status in the academic study of science fiction.