Mark Magoon is an author and educator.
His publishing credentials feature works of poetry and creative nonfiction that have been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. His first book of poems--The Upper Peninsula Misses You (ELJ Editions, 2015)--is very much writing of place, but the haunting tale of broken families and languishing landscapes found within could just as likely be from anywhere across America. His poetry can be found in numerous literary journals, magazines, and all over the web; including After Hours, Blue Fifth Review, DIAGRAM, Ghost Ocean Magazine, Midwestern Gothic, The Nervous Breakdown, and many other venues. His poem "From the Fire" appears in the Eclectica Magazine Best Poetry anthology, which celebrates twenty years of publishing. His lyric essay "Chef! Chef! Chef!" was featured at Burrow Press as part of their celebration of nonfiction and on the radio program and podcast Functionally Literate--Creative Nonfiction Editor Susan Fallows said it was, “Unlike anything I had ever read.”
Magoon teaches writing full-time at University of Illinois at Chicago where he serves as Visiting Lecturer in the Department of English. His pedagogy is primarily concerned with critical inquiry, rhetoric, and the discovery of voice in varying discourse communities. The content of his current curriculum uses the topic of social justice as both mirror and lens en route to academic writing. Magoon studied under author Kathleen Rooney at Roosevelt University where he earned his M.F.A. in Creative Writing, along with a Credential in the Teaching of Writing, and earned his B.A. in English from the University of Iowa.
He makes home in the Windy City with a wife that's far too pretty and their bulldog, Kinnick.
