Background
Ben Marcus was born on October 11, 1967 in Chicago, Illinois, United States; the son of Michael Marcus, a retired mathematician and Jane Marcus, the literary critic and Virginia Woolf scholar.
New York, NY 10003, United States
Ben Marcus received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from New York University.
Providence, RI 02912, United States
Ben Marcus received a Master of Fine Arts from Brown University.
New York, NY 10003, United States
Ben Marcus received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from New York University.
Providence, RI 02912, United States
Ben Marcus received a Master of Fine Arts from Brown University.
(In The Age of Wire and String Ben Marcus welds together a...)
In The Age of Wire and String Ben Marcus welds together a new reality from the scrapheap of the past. Dogs, birds, horses, automobiles, and the weather are some of the recycled elements in Marcus's first collection - part fiction, part handbook - as familiar objects take on markedly unfamiliar meanings. Gradually, this makeshift world, in its defiance of the laws of physics and language, finds a foundation in its own implausibility, as Marcus produces new feelings and sensations - both comic and disturbing - in the definitive guide to an unpredictable yet exhilarating plane of existence.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C2T5WSC/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i3
1995
(On a farm in Ohio, American women led by Jane Dark practi...)
On a farm in Ohio, American women led by Jane Dark practice all means of behavior modification in an attempt to attain complete stillness and silence. Witnessing (and subjected to) their cultish actions is one Ben Marcus, whose father, Michael Marcus, may be buried in the back yard, and whose mother, Jane Marcus, enthusiastically condones the use of her son for (generally unsuccessful) breeding purposes, among other things. Inventing his own uses for language, the author Ben Marcus has written a harrowing, hilarious, strangely moving, altogether engrossing work of fiction that will be read and argued over for years to come.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XUBDMG/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i5
2002
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0893819352/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i8
2002
(Behold a stunning world, composed largely of water, where...)
Behold a stunning world, composed largely of water, where clothing changes people's behavior and time itself can be worn and discarded like cloth. Witness a father who takes his two boys out to sea, in flight from some menace at home, thus launching their adventures in a strange and dangerous territory.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1891273035/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i9
2002
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XU8DW4/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i1
2004
(The sound of children's speech has become lethal. In the ...)
The sound of children's speech has become lethal. In the park, adults wither beneath the powerful screams of their offspring. For young parents Sam and Claire, it seems their only means of survival is to flee from their daughter, Esther. But they find it isn't so easy to leave someone you love, even as they waste away from her malevolent speech. On the eve of their departure, Claire mysteriously disappears, and Sam, determined to find a cure for this new toxic language, presses on alone into a foreign world to try to save his family.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004YWKKFU/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0
2012
(In “Watching Mysteries With my Mother,” a new story from ...)
In “Watching Mysteries With my Mother,” a new story from Ben Marcus chosen by the editors of Electric Literature, an unnamed narrator considers his culpability in his mother’s inevitable death.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085CDJW6/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i7
2012
(By turns hilarious and heartfelt, dark and illuminative, ...)
By turns hilarious and heartfelt, dark and illuminative, Ben Marcus’s Leaving the Sea is a ground breaking collection of stories from one of the single most vital, extraordinary, and unique writers of his generation.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DXKJ2DK/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i6
2014
(Ben Marcus returns with a collection of timely dystopian ...)
Ben Marcus returns with a collection of timely dystopian visions of alienation in a modern world. Here a hapless, corporate drone finds love after being disfigured from testing his employer’s newest nutrition supplement; a father starts to suspect that his son’s precocity has turned sinister; and two architects in a failing marriage must consider the ethics of artificially inciting emotion as they construct a memorial to a terrorist attack. It’s these characters and others that over the course of thirteen short stories showcase Marcus’s compassion, imagination, and mordant humor. Never has existential catastrophe been so much fun.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077RHDK1B/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i4
2018
Ben Marcus was born on October 11, 1967 in Chicago, Illinois, United States; the son of Michael Marcus, a retired mathematician and Jane Marcus, the literary critic and Virginia Woolf scholar.
Ben Marcus received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from New York University and Master of Fine Arts from Brown University.
Ben Marcus is a professor at Columbia University’s School of the Arts and the author of nine books, among which are Notable American Women, The Father Costume, The Age of Wire and String, The Flame Alphabet, and the collection of short stories, Leaving the Sea. The latest book, Notes From The Fog: Stories, was published in August 2018His stories have appeared in Harper’s, New Yorker, Paris Review, The Believer, New York Times, and others. Ben is also the editor of The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories and serves as the fiction editor for The American Reader.
(By turns hilarious and heartfelt, dark and illuminative, ...)
2014(In “Watching Mysteries With my Mother,” a new story from ...)
2012(On a farm in Ohio, American women led by Jane Dark practi...)
2002(Behold a stunning world, composed largely of water, where...)
2002(In The Age of Wire and String Ben Marcus welds together a...)
1995(Ben Marcus returns with a collection of timely dystopian ...)
2018(The sound of children's speech has become lethal. In the ...)
2012Marcus works are influenced by Virginia Woolf, Franz Kafka, Donald Barthelme, Richard Yates, Flannery O'Connor, Thomas Bernhard, Padgett Powell, J. M. Coetzee, Kōbō Abe, Gary Lutz, and George Saunders.
Ben Marcus is married to Heidi Julavits and has two children - Delia and Solomon.
