Ben Marcus
Encyclopedia
Ben Marcus (born 1967) is the author of three books of fiction, Notable American Women, The Father Costume, and The Age of Wire and String. His new novel, The Flame Alphabet, will be published by Alfred A. Knopf
in January of 2012. His stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in Harper's, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Believer, The New York Times, Salon, McSweeney's, Time, Conjunctions, Grand Street, and Tin House. He is the editor of The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, and for several years he was the fiction editor of Fence. Marcus is a 2009 recipient of a grant for Innovative Literature from the Creative Capital Foundation. In 2008 he received the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and he has also received a Whiting Writers Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in fiction, and three Pushcart Prizes. Marcus is an associate professor in the School of the Arts at Columbia University
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Alfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house, founded by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. in 1915. It was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House. The publishing house is known for its borzoi trademark , which was designed by co-founder...
in January of 2012. His stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in Harper's, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Believer, The New York Times, Salon, McSweeney's, Time, Conjunctions, Grand Street, and Tin House. He is the editor of The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, and for several years he was the fiction editor of Fence. Marcus is a 2009 recipient of a grant for Innovative Literature from the Creative Capital Foundation. In 2008 he received the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and he has also received a Whiting Writers Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in fiction, and three Pushcart Prizes. Marcus is an associate professor in the School of the Arts at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
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Books
- The Age of Wire and StringThe Age of Wire and StringThe Age of Wire and String is Ben Marcus's first book, published in 1995. The book is composed of 8 sections, divided into 41 short experimental fictions, which combine technical language with lyrical imagery to form a sort of Postmodern catalog by turns surreal, fantastic, and...
(1995) - Notable American WomenNotable American WomenNotable American Women is a novel, written by author Ben Marcus and published in March 2002.-Plot introduction:The novel, written as a follow-up to Marcus's literary debut, The Age of Wire and String, deals with an abstruse Ohio family, which shares the author's surname...
(2002) - The Father Costume (2002) with art by Matthew RitchieMatthew RitchieRitchie attended the Camberwell School of Art 1983-86. He describes himself as "classically trained" but also points to a minimalist influence.Ritchie's art revolves around a personal mythology drawn from creation myths, particle physics, thermodynamics, and games of chance, among other...
- The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories (2004), editor
- The Moors (2010)
- The Flame Alphabet (2012)
Life
- Associate Professor at Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
- Marcus lives in New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Brooklin, MaineBrooklin, MaineBrooklin is a town in Hancock County, Maine, United States. The population was 841 at the 2000 census. It is home to WoodenBoat Magazine Brooklin Boat Yard, and numerous boatbuilders, artists, writers, musicians and potters.-History:...
Essays
- Dr. Seuss
- Thomas Bernhard
- The Lyric Essay
- Why experimental fiction threatens to destroy publishing, Jonathan Franzen, and life as we know it: A correction portion of an article published in Harper's Magazine in response to an essay by Mr. Franzen
Short Fiction
- Web del Sol features some excerpts from The Age of Wire and String
- The Believer Ben Marcus reviews a portable planerPlanerThe term planer may refer to several types of carpentry tools, woodworking machines or metalworking machine tools.*Plane : a hand tool used to produce flat surfaces by shaving the surface of the wood...