Marc Rosen possesses a critic’s tongue, a demon’s luck, and a cynic’s humor. He currently serves as Treasurer for The Bards Initiative and as a member of the New York State Independent Living Council (NYSILC).
Marc has, in one capacity or another, been vehemently active in disability and autistic rights since high school. His writings on disability rights and autistic erasure were used as required reading for Special Education majors while he himself was still working on his Bachelor’s, and he has lectured extensively on issues in education without taking a single college course on the subject. On his way out of college, he helped to cofound The Bards Initiative in 2010, during one of many conversations in a Starbucks on the highway near campus. This also began his work as a submissions editor, with Perspectives: Poetry Concerning Autism and Other Disabilities: Volume I being released later that year, which was then followed by Perspectives: Poetry Concerning Autism and Other Disabilities: Volume II in mid-2012.
His works have graced the pages of many a Local Gems anthology, along with a few others over the years, including several defunct e-zines, as well as Autonomous Press’s Spoon Knife Anthology. He was honored for his accomplishments in the literary arts at the 2015 ANCA International Autistic People’s Awards and World Festival, as well as winning 2nd place at Super Poem Sunday 2018, the most recent of a series of acknowledgements and accolades. He also served as lead editor on Unbelief, an atheistic poetry anthology released in October 2018, and will release Stonewall’s Legacy, an LGBT+ poetry anthology, in April or May 2019.
When not on a crusade or sitting at some table portraying a high fantasy character with fellow nerds, Marc enjoys quiet evenings at home, spent reading, laughing at random stuff on the Internet, lamenting the disappearance of Craigslist personals, and quietly plotting to rule the world from the shadows.
