Mark Salzman

Author profile

born

January 01, 1959 in The United States

gender

male

genre

Biographies & Memoirs, Literature & Fiction

About this author

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Mark Salzman is an award-winning novelist and nonfiction author who has written on a variety of subjects, from a graceful novel about a Carmelite nun’s ecstatic visions and crisis of faith to a compelling memoir about growing up a misfit in a Connecticut suburb – clearly displaying a range that transcends genre. As a boy, all Salzman ever wanted was to be a Kung Fu master, but it was his proficiency on the cello that facilitated his acceptance to Yale at the age of 16. He soon changed his major to Chinese language and philosophy, which took him to mainland China where he taught English for two years and studied martial arts. He never gave up music, though, and Salzman’s cello playing appears on the soundtrack to several films, including the...more Mark Salzman is an award-winning novelist and nonfiction author who has written on a variety of subjects, from a graceful novel about a Carmelite nun’s ecstatic visions and crisis of faith to a compelling memoir about growing up a misfit in a Connecticut suburb – clearly displaying a range that transcends genre. As a boy, all Salzman ever wanted was to be a Kung Fu master, but it was his proficiency on the cello that facilitated his acceptance to Yale at the age of 16. He soon changed his major to Chinese language and philosophy, which took him to mainland China where he taught English for two years and studied martial arts. He never gave up music, though, and Salzman’s cello playing appears on the soundtrack to several films, including the Academy Award-winning documentary Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien. He has also played with Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emanuel Ax at Lincoln Center. Salzman’s unusual combination of talents – as both a well-known author and a concert-proficient cellist – led to a feature profile about him in The New Yorker magazine. He was also recently presented with the Algonquin West Hollywood Literary Award.

A number of Mark Salzman’s books have been chosen for “book in common” reading programs by more than a few schools and universities for their elegance, humor, and portrayal of our shared humanity. His first memoir, Iron and Silk, inspired by his years in China, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction and received the Christopher Award. His book True Notebooks is a fascinating look at his experiences as a writing teacher at Los Angeles Central Juvenile Hall, a lockup for violent teenage offenders. Salzman is also the author of the memoir Lost in Place: Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia, and the novels The Laughing Sutra, The Soloist, and Lying Awake. Common to each of his works is a theme of how people struggle to reach an ideal but often fall short, and the quiet change that takes place in facing the discouragement and the possibility of never achieving their goal. Salzman writes with gut-wrenching honesty and unalloyed warmth, combined with a sharp sense of humor.

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Books by Mark Salzman

Average rating: 3.82 · 5,549 ratings · 826 reviews · 13 distinct works

	Iron and Silk 3.89 avg rating — 1,285 ratings — published 1986 — 16 editions	My rating:
	The Soloist 3.57 avg rating — 1,164 ratings — 7 editions	My rating:
	True Notebooks: A Writer's Year at Juvenile Hall 4.07 avg rating — 1,001 ratings — published 2003 — 10 editions	My rating:
	Lying Awake 3.75 avg rating — 1,180 ratings — published 2000 — 8 editions	My rating:
	Lost In Place: Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia 3.82 avg rating — 504 ratings — published 1995 — 6 editions	My rating:
	The Laughing Sutra 3.82 avg rating — 379 ratings — published 1991 — 6 editions	My rating:
	The Man in the Empty Boat 3.91 avg rating — 32 ratings — published 2012 — 6 editions	My rating:
	Le fer et la soie 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1989	My rating:
	What We See: poems and essays from inside Juvenile Hall by Mark Salzman (Editor), Karen Hunt (Editor) 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2002	My rating:
	An Atheist in Freefall 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2011	My rating:

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Quotes by Mark Salzman

“My writing is how I maintain.”
― Mark Salzman, True Notebooks: A Writer's Year at Juvenile Hall

tags: writing

7 people liked it

“It's a mean story, Helen fumed. An absentee father who demands that his children put him at the center of their lives and beg for his return. Sister Priscilla didn't think it was mean, apparently. She was so in love with God that she had married him, even though she would not see his face, hear his voice, or feel his embrace for as long as she lived. One of us, Helen, thought is flying blind.”
― Mark Salzman, Lying Awake

tags: god

5 people liked it

“What if I have it all upside down? What if I'm the one who knows nothing of God, and the people in the world are actually interceding on my behalf with their ordinary daily struggles”
― Mark Salzman, Lying Awake

tags: being-a-nun

3 people liked it

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