Brewster (Slouka) - Author Bio

Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1958
• Where—Queens, New York, New York USA
• Raised—Brewster, New York
• Education—Columbia University
• Awards—PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award (Essay)
• Currently—lives in Brewster, New York


Mark Slouka is an American novelist and critic. The son of Czech immigrants, he is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Columbia University and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005. He is a frequent contributor to Harper's Magazine, where he is also a contributing editor.

The subject matter of his 1996 book War of the Worlds: Cyberspace and the Assault on Reality encompasses the extent to which virtual reality and blurring of real life with corporate fantasy has become a "genuine cultural phenomenon."

In 2003, his first novel God's Fool fictionalised the life of Siamese twins, Chang and Eng. and his 2006 short story "Dominion", originally published in TriQuarterly, was included within the anthology Best American Short Stories 2006. His short story "The Hare's Mask," originally published in Harper's, was included in the anthology The Best American Short Stories 2011.

In his 1020 book Essays from the Nick of Time, Slouka argues that "The humanities are a superb delivery mechanism for what we might call democratic values." In one of the essays, "Quitting the Paint Factory," he writes, "Idleness is ... requisite to the construction of a complete human being;... allowing us time to figure out who we are, and what we believe; by allowing us time to consider what is unjust, and what we might do about it." The essay collection won the 2011 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay.

His second novel, The Visible World, tells the story of a son uncovering his flawed parents earlier life in the Czech resistance. It gained notability in the UK following its inclusion in the 2008 Richard & Judy Book Club list.

In his third novel Brewster, published in 2013, two teenaged boys hope to escape their dead-end town, Brewster. Slouka's prose was referred to in the New York Times as "devastatingly agile." The Washington Post called the book "a masterpiece of winter sorrow." (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 9/21/2013.)