Mark Kurlansky

American journalist and writer (born 1948)

(Learn how and when to remove this template message)
  • Journalist
  • author
GenreNonfiction

Mark Kurlansky (December 7, 1948) is an American journalist and author who has written a number of books of fiction and nonfiction. His 1997 book, Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World (1997), was an international bestseller and was translated into more than fifteen languages. His book Nonviolence: Twenty-five Lessons From the History of a Dangerous Idea (2006) was the nonfiction winner of the 2007 Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

Life and work

Kurlansky was born in Hartford, Connecticut on December 7, 1948.[1] He attended Butler University, where he earned a BA in 1970.[1] He started his career as a playwright. He was a theatre major at college and wrote seven or eight plays, a few of which were produced. But he said that he became "frustrated with theatre, which is to say I became frustrated with Broadway".[2]

From 1976 to 1991, he worked as a correspondent in Western Europe for the Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and eventually the Paris-based International Herald Tribune.[1][3][4] He moved to Mexico in 1982, where he continued to practice journalism. In 2007, he was named the Baruch College Harman writer-in-residence.[1]

Kurlansky wrote his first book, A Continent of Islands, in 1992 and went on to write several more throughout the 1990s. His third work of nonfiction, Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, won the 1998 James Beard Award.[5] It became an international bestseller and was translated into more than 15 languages. His work and contribution to Basque identity and culture was recognized in 2001 when the Society of Basque Studies in America named him to the Basque Hall of Fame.[1] That same year, he was awarded an honorary ambassadorship from the Basque government.[1]

As a teenager, Kurlansky called Émile Zola his "hero", and in 2009, he translated one of Zola's novels, The Belly of Paris, whose theme is the food markets of Paris.[6]

Kurlansky's 2009 book, The Food of a Younger Land, with the subtitle "A portrait of American food – before the national highway system, before chain restaurants, and before frozen food, when the nation's food was seasonal, regional, and traditional – from the lost WPA files", details American foodways in the early 20th century.

Publications

Nonfiction

External videos
video icon Presentation by Kurlansky on Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, August 15, 1998, C-SPAN
video icon Presentation by Kurlansky on Salt: A World History, January 29, 2002, C-SPAN
video icon Presentation by Kurlansky on 1968: The Year That Rocked the World, January 14, 2004, C-SPAN
video icon Presentation by Kurlansky on The Food of a Younger Land, May 14, 2009, C-SPAN
video icon Presentation by Kurlansky on Paper: Paging Through History, June 12, 2016, C-SPAN

Fiction

Children's books

As editor

As translator

Awards

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Contemporary Authors Online". Biography in Context. Gale. 2012. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
  2. ^ editsuite99 (June 19, 2020). "Interview with Mark Kurlansky". ARTSMANIA. Retrieved July 20, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ "The Writers Directory". Biography in Context. Gale. 2015. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
  4. ^ editsuite99 (June 19, 2020). "Interview with Mark Kurlansky". ARTSMANIA. Retrieved July 20, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ "Awards Search | James Beard Foundation". www.jamesbeard.org. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
  6. ^ "A Conversation with Mark Kurlansky, translator of Zola’s Classic" Archived January 20, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, conversation with Terrance Gelenter
  7. ^ Wolkomir, Richard. "Review of 'Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World'". Smithsonian. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
  8. ^ MacFarlane, Robert (January 20, 2002). "Observer review: Salt by Mark Kurlansky". The Observer. London. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
  9. ^ Preston, Peter (April 17, 2004). "Observer review: 1968 by Mark Kurlansky". The Observer. London. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
  10. ^ Garfield, Simon (July 3, 2016). "Paper: Paging Through History by Mark Kurlansky – review". The Observer. London. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
  11. ^ "Nonviolence: Twenty-five Lessons From the History of a Dangerous Idea, 2007 nonfiction winner"
  12. ^ "Dayton Literary Peace Prize - Mark Kurlansky, 2007 Nonfiction Winner". www.daytonliterarypeaceprize.org. Retrieved January 13, 2016.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mark Kurlansky.