Ben Marcus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ben Marcus (born Chicago, 1967) is a writer of surreal – as distinct from surrealist - fiction. The surreal nature of his work derives in part from the fact that it is comprised of sentences that are exact in their structure and syntax but whose words – though familiar - appear to have abandoned their ordinary meanings; they can be read as experiments in the ways in which language and syntax themselves work to create structures of meaning. Common themes that emerge are family, the midwest, science, mathematics, and religion, although their treatment in Marcus's writing lends to new interpretations and conceptualizations of those concepts.
Marcus attended New York University (NYU) and Brown University, and currently teaches writing at Columbia University where he was recently promoted to head of the writing MFA program. He is married to novelist Heidi Julavits.
[edit] List of Books
- Notable American Women (2002)
- The Father Costume (2002) with art by Matthew Ritchie
- The Age of Wire and String (1996)
[edit] Online Texts
- Web del Sol features some excerpts from The Age of Wire and String
- The Believer Ben Marcus reviews a portable planer
