Mark Svenvold

Mark is a poet, songwriter, and nonfiction writer who lives in New York City, where he is working on the narrative poetry trilogy, You, Me, and the Algorithmic Sea, and developing a theater adaptation of the trilogy. A graduate of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he was a teaching-writing fellow, his first book of poems, Soul Data, won the Vassar Miller Award, selected by Heather McHugh. A short selection of poems from the trilogy, entitled A Little Music for the Soft War, was published in October 2025 as a chapbook from Moonstone Press.

His poems have been published widely in magazines such as The New Yorker, The Nation, The Atlantic Monthly, Poetry International, The North American Review, The Agni Review, and Ploughshares, with recent prizes including the Beyond Baroque Award, selected by Matthew Zapruder, and the Spoon River Editor’s Choice Prize, selected by Li-Young Lee. His nonfiction book Elmer McCurdy: The Misadventures in Life and Afterlife of an American Outlaw was published by Basic Books. Big Weather: Chasing Tornadoes in the Heart of America was published by Henry Holt & Co.

He teaches creative writing at Seton Hall University.