Mark Salzman was born in 1959 in Connecticut. At the age of seven he started to play the cello because of his mother's musical influence. He also has a small thing for astronomy from his father.
At 13, Mark set out on a quest to become a Kung Fu Zen master after seeing his first Kung Fu film.
It was his proficiency on the cello, however, that facilitated his acceptance to Yale at the age of 16. He soon changed his major to Chinese language and philosophy, eventually leading him to travel to mainland China, where he spent two years teaching English at Hunan Medical College and studying traditional martial arts at their source. In 1985, he was the only non-Chinese invited to participate in the National Martial Arts Competition in Tianjin. Salzman’s cello playing appears on the soundtrack to several films, including the Academy Award-winning documentary Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien. In 1996, Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emanuel Ax invited Mark Salzman to join them as guest cellist for part of their Valentine’s Day chamber music program at Alice Tully Hall, which was broadcast nationally on the television program Live From Lincoln Center.
Mark Salzman’s experiences in China were the inspiration for his first book, Iron and Silk, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in non-fiction and received the Christopher Award. He wrote the screenplay for, and starred in, the critically acclaimed film version of Iron & Silk, which was shot entirely on location in China. His other books include a memoir, Lost in Place: Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia, and the novels The Laughing Sutra, The Soloist, and Lying Awake. His power as a writer is such that his fiction and his non-fiction have been praised for a lyrical style and gut-wrenching honesty. As well, his great sense of humor—so integral to his marvelous ability to tell a story—is a highlight of his public appearances.
Mark Salzman’s book True Notebooks (Fall 2003) is a fascinating look at his experiences as a writing teacher at Los Angeles Central Juvenile Hall, a lockup for violent teenage offenders. Common to each of his works is the theme of how people struggle to reach an ideal but often fall short, and the quiet change that takes place in facing the discouragement and the possibility of never achieving their goal.
Salzman is married to Oscar-winning film maker Jessica Yu. They live in Los Angeles with two cats, Fog and Smog, birds and fish. They long to move back to San Francisco.
• Iron and Silk (1986)
• The Laughing Sutra (1991)
• The Soloist (1994)
• Lost in Place: Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia (1995)
