Mark Pawlak

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Mark Pawlak (b. 1948 in Buffalo, New York) is a Polish-American poet and educator.

In 1966, Pawlak received a scholarship to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He moved to Boston to attend MIT and study physics, and has remained in the area ever since. While at MIT, Pawlak enrolled in a poetry seminar with Denise Levertov. From that time, poetry became an integral part of his life and work.

Pawlak's original poems, as well as his translations from German of the works of Bertolt Brecht and others, have appeared widely in literary magazines and anthologies. Levertov introduced his first poetry collection, The Buffalo Sequence (Copper Canyon Press, 1978). Three other collections have followed, the most recent being "official Versions" (Hanging Loose Press). His other collections include "Special handling: Newspaper Poems New and Selected" and "All the News."

Pawlak is also the editor of a number of anthologies; Present Tense: Poets in the World (Hanging Loose, 2004) is a collection of contemporary political poetry. With Dick Lourie, he has edited three anthologies of outstanding high school writing: Shooting the Rat, Bullseye, and Smart Like Me (all from Hanging Loose).

In addition to writing and editing, Pawlak is Director of Academic Support Programs at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he also teaches mathematics. He lives in Cambridge with his wife and son.