Mark Merlis (March 9, 1950 – August 15, 2017
''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', August 23, 2017.) was an American writer and health policy analyst.Mark Merlis
at

glbtq.com glbtq.com (also known as the glbtq Encyclopedia Project) was an online encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer ( GLBTQ) culture. Launched in 2003, it was edited by Claude J. Summers, emeritus professor at the University of ...

.William Johnson
"In Remembrance: Mark Merlis"

Lambda Literary Foundation The Lambda Literary Foundation (also known as Lambda Literary) is an American LGBTQ literary organization whose mission is to nurture and advocate for LGBTQ writers, elevating the impact of their words to create community, preserve their legaci ...

, August 22, 2017. Accessed 23 August 23, 2017.

Biography

Born in

Framingham, Massachusetts Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The city proper covers with a popu ...

on March 9, 1950 and raised in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, Merlis attended

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

and

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. He subsequently took a job with the Maryland Department of Health to support himself while writing. In 1987, he took a job with the

Congressional Research Service The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a public policy research institute of the United States Congress. Operating within the Library of Congress, it works primarily and directly for members of Congress and their committees and staff on a c ...

at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

as a social legislation specialist, and was involved in the creation of the

Ryan White Care Act The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act (Ryan White CARE Act), ), was an act of the United States Congress and is the largest federally funded program in the United States for people living with HIV/AIDS. In exchange for State ...

. Beginning in the 1990s, Merlis published a series of novels. His first novel, ''American Studies'', was published in 1994 and won the

Ferro-Grumley Award The Ferro-Grumley Award is an annual literary award, presented by Publishing Triangle and the Ferro-Grumley Foundation to a book deemed the year's best work of LGBT fiction. The award is presented in memory of writers Robert Ferro and Michael Grum ...

for LGBT Literature and the

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Since 1980, the ''Los Angeles Times'' has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The Prizes currently have nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award added in 1991), history, mystery/thriller ( ...

Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction in 1995, and his second, ''

An Arrow's Flight ''An Arrow's Flight'' is a 1998 novel by Mark Merlis. Plot summary Pyrrhus lives in the city with his housemate Leucon. He works as a waiter, then as a hustler. One day he hears his father Achilles has left him some inheritance in Troy, and he ...

'', was published in 1998 and won the 1999 Lambda Literary Award for

Gay Fiction ''Gay'' is a term that Terminology of homosexuality, primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to Gay men, ...

. He published two further novels during his lifetime, ''Man About Town'' in 2003 and ''JD'' in 2015. Merlis lived in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, and worked both as an author and an independent health policy consultant.

Illness and death

Merlis died on August 15, 2017, at the

Pennsylvania Hospital Pennsylvania Hospital is a private, non-profit, 515-bed teaching hospital located in Center City Philadelphia and is part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Founded on May 11, 1751, by Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond, Pennsylv ...

in Philadelphia, from pneumonia associated with

ALS Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most com ...

. He was sixty-seven years old. He is survived by his husband of many years, Robert Ashe.

Works

*''American Studies'' (1994) *''

'' (1998) - also published as ''Pyrrhus'' (1999) *''Man About Town'' (2003) *''JD'' (2015)

References

External links

Mark Merlis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merlis, Mark 1950 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists American gay writers Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction winners People from Framingham, Massachusetts Writers from Baltimore Novelists from Massachusetts American LGBT novelists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Maryland LGBT people from Massachusetts