Mark Jay Mirsky (born 1939 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American writer and professor of English at City College of New York.

Work

Mirsky's first three novels (''Thou Worm Jacob'', ''Proceedings of the Rabble'', and ''Blue Hill Avenue'') present a humorous and scathing portrait of the Jewish community of and around Blue Hill Avenue in Dorchester. He also published a pair of novellas under the name ''The Secret Table''. The first story, "Dorchester, Home and Garden," deals with a man who returns to the burnt-out Jewish district on Blue Hill Avenue, and the second, "Onan's Child", is a retelling of the biblical story of

Onan Onan ''Aunan'' was a figure detailed in the Book of Genesis chapter 38, as the second son of Judah and Shuah, and the brother of Er and Shelah. After being commanded by Judah to procreate with the late Er's wife Tamar, he instead "spilled his s ...

. Mirsky's later, more experimental, works include ''The Red Adam'', a novel written in the form of a "discovered" document unearthed in a

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

library sometime in the 1940s. Mirsky also wrote several books of nonfiction including ''My Search for the Messiah: Studies and Wanderings in Israel and America'' and ''The Absent

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

''. His latest book, ''

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...

, Eros, and

Kabbalah Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "receiver"). The defin ...

'', is a combination of literary criticism, Jewish mysticism and personal narrative. Mirsky has also edited, and wrote the introduction for, ''Diaries: Robert Musil 1899-1942'', and published several works and articles in ''

The Partisan Review ''Partisan Review'' (''PR'') was a small-circulation quarterly "little magazine" dealing with literature, politics, and cultural commentary published in New York City. The magazine was launched in 1934 by the Communist Party USA–affiliated John ...

'', ''New Directions Annual'', ''The Boston Sunday Globe'', and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

Book Review''. He is currently the editor of Fiction, a literary magazine at City College which he founded in 1972 with

Donald Barthelme Donald Barthelme (April 7, 1931 – July 23, 1989) was an American short story writer and novelist known for his playful, postmodernist style of short fiction. Barthelme also worked as a newspaper reporter for the ''Houston Post'', was managing ...

and

Max Frisch Max Rudolf Frisch (; 15 May 1911 – 4 April 1991) was a Swiss playwright and novelist. Frisch's works focused on problems of identity, individuality, responsibility, morality, and political commitment. The use of irony is a significant featur ...

. One of Mirsky's plays, ''Mother Hubbard's Cupboard'', was performed as part of the 2007 New York International Fringe Festival.

Bibliography

* ''Thou Worm Jacob'' (1967), Macmillan. * ''Proceedings of the Rabble'' (1970), The Bobbs-Merrill Company. * ''Blue Hill Avenue'' (1972), The Bobbs-Merrill Company. * ''The Secret Table'' (1975), NY Fiction Collective. * ''My Search for the Messiah: Studies and Wanderings in Israel and America'' (1977), Macmillan . * ''The Red Adam'' (1990), Sun & Moon Press. * ''The Absent Shakespeare'' (2002), Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. * ''Dante, Eros and Kabbalah'' (2003), Syracuse University Press. * ''Puddingstone: Franklin Park'' (2014), self-published on

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

. * ''A Mother's Steps: A Meditation on Silence'' (2016), self-published on Amazon.

References

External links

Fiction Literary Magazine
- at ''

The Brooklyn Rail ''The Brooklyn Rail'' is a publication and platform for the arts, culture, humanities, and politics. The ''Rail'' is based out of Brooklyn, New York. It features in-depth critical essays, fiction, poetry, as well as interviews with artists, criti ...

''.
Review of Mother Hubbard's Cupboard
- at ''NY Theatre''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mirsky, Mark Jay Living people 20th-century American novelists American male novelists American academics of English literature City College of New York faculty 1939 births Jewish American novelists American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers Novelists from New York (state) 20th-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American Jews