Mark Leyner
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Mark Leyner | |
|---|---|
 August 2006 | |
| Born | 4 January 1956 |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | American |
Mark Leyner (born 4 January 1956) is an American postmodernist author.
Biography
Leyner employs an intense and unconventional style in his works of fiction. His stories are generally humorous and absurd, with bizarre juxtapositions of people, places and things reminiscent of a Mad Lib. Leyner incorporates many medical references throughout his work. In The Tetherballs of Bougainville, Mark's father survives a lethal injection at the hands of the New Jersey penal system, and so is freed but must live the remainder of his life in fear of being executed, at New Jersey's discretion, in any situation and regardless of collateral damage. They frequently incorporate elements of meta-fiction: In the same novel, an adolescent Mark produces a film adaptation of the story of his father's failed execution, although he reads a newspaper review of the movie to the prison's warden, and then dies, before even leaving the prison. At the sentence level, Leyner uses sprawling imagery and an extravagant vocabulary, bordering on prose poetry.
Leyner has also worked as a columnist for Esquire and George magazines, and as a writer for the MTV program Liquid Television. He also co-wrote and voiced a short-lived series of audio fiction called Wiretap.
Leyner also studied with noted post-modern author Steve Katz at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
During the 1990s, Leyner was a resident of Hoboken, New Jersey, together with his dog Carmella.[1]
In the mid-to-late 2000s, Leyner collaborated with Dr. Billy Goldberg on three humorous, though fact-based, books on medicine.
Filmography
He is credited with co-authoring the screenplay of War, Inc.
Selected works
- Novels
- Short story collections:
- My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist (1990)
- I Smell Esther Williams and Other Stories (1995)
- Tooth Imprints on a Corn Dog (1996)
- Non-fiction
- Why Do Men Have Nipples? Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini (2005)
- Why Do Men Fall Asleep After Sex? More Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Whiskey Sour (2006)
- Let's Play Doctor: The Instant Guide to Walking, Talking, and Probing like a Real M.D. (2008)
Further reading
- Phillip Wise (Spring 1996). "Schwarzenegger Imagery in Mark Leyner's Et Tu, Babe". Deep South. 2 (3).
Notes and references
- ^ Grimes, William. "The Ridiculous Vision of Mark Leyner", The New York Times, September 13, 1992. Accessed February 6, 2013. "When Leyner says, 'Stop it, Carmella,' or 'Get over here,' the dog ignores him, and continues to sow chaos in her master's apartment in Hoboken, N.J."
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-03-19. Retrieved 2011-08-25.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/mark-leyner/gone-with-the-mind/9780316323253/
External links
- Author profile at Internet Book List, iblist.com
- The unofficial Mark Leyner page, spesh.com
- Interview with Salon magazine from 1997, salon.com
- Sam Lipsyte (Spring 2013). "Mark Leyner, The Art of Fiction No. 219". The Paris Review.
- AOL Books Interview with Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg on their book Why Do Men Fall Asleep After Sex? More Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Whiskey Sour from 2006.
- Interview on War, Inc. at IFC.com
- Mark Leyner at IMDb
- 1956 births
- Living people
- 20th-century American novelists
- 21st-century American novelists
- American information and reference writers
- American male novelists
- American short story writers
- Brandeis University alumni
- University of Colorado alumni
- Writers from Hoboken, New Jersey
- Postmodern writers
- Jewish American novelists
- American male short story writers
- Novelists from New Jersey
- 21st-century American non-fiction writers
- American male non-fiction writers
- 20th-century American male writers