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Photo by Lisa Arrastia

Mark Nowak

Photo by Lisa Arrastia

Mark Nowak is a poet, social critic, and labor activist. He is the author of Shut Up Shut Down (Coffee House Press, 2004, afterword by Amiri Baraka), a New York Times Editor’s Choice, and Coal Mountain Elementary (Coffee House Press, 2009), which Howard Zinn called “a stunning educational tool.” He is a 2010 Guggenheim fellow and recipient of the Freedom Plow Award for Poetry & Activism from Split This Rock (2015). A native of Buffalo, Nowak currently directs the MFA Program at Manhattanville College and is the founding director of the Worker Writers School in collaboration with the PEN American Center.

Prizes, Awards & Fellowships
  • 2015 Lannan Literary Fellowship for Poetry
Residencies
  • 2016