Mark Eric Seinfelt was born on February 27, 1962, in Indiana, Pennsylvania. He attended university and public schools and represented Indiana Area Senior High School at the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts at Bucknell University in the summer of 1979 where he was enrolled in creative writing. In 1983, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the Pennsylvania State University. He accelerated at Penn State, completing his studies in three years instead of the customary four. A university scholar and honors student in English, he graduated with distinction. His thesis in creative composition, the final requirement in the university scholar honors program, The Mozart Machine: an excerpt received the Henry Sams Memorial Award of 1983, the highest honor bestowed on an English Honors thesis at Penn State. As a student at the university, Seinfelt studied under novelist and screenwriter Robert C.S. Downs and critically acclaimed author Paul West, whose awards include the Lannan Prize for Fiction, the Literature Prize of the American Academy, and the designation Chevalier of Arts and Letters from the government of France. Author Thomas Rogers and critic Philip Young sat on the Henry Sams Memorial Award committee judging the honors theses in 1983.

In May of 1987, Seinfelt received a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Washington University in St. Louis where he was the recipient of a three-year tuition scholarship, fellowship, and teaching assistantship; and where he completed the novel The Mozart Machine. The chairman of his dissertation committee was the noted fiction writer, philosopher, essayist and multiple National Book Circle Award-winner William H. Gass. Seinfelt’s was the only creative writing thesis Gass had ever consented to supervise during his years at Washington University. At St. Louis, Seinfelt also studied under Stanley Elkin, Lee K. Abbot, Donald Finkel, Diane Ackerman, Charles Newman, and Pulitzer Prize winning author and United States Poet Laureate Howard Nemerov.

Since receiving his MFA, Seinfelt has completed four more novels Henry Boulanger of Mushannon Town, Steiglitz’s Folly, Intrusive Voices, and At Last the Distinguished Thing. His fiction has been featured in Kalliope and Chicxculub. In September 1996, a chapter from his suicide-study-in-progress Final Drafts was published in The Bookpress: The Newspaper of the Literary Arts, a Cornell University publication. Final Drafts was Seinfelt’s first book to reach publication. Acquired by Prometheus Books, it saw print in December 1999. Prometheus is a commercial press specializing in non-fiction and is the publisher of Steve Allen, Peter Ustinov, Leslie Fiedler, and Jack Kevorkian, among others. On January 16, 2000, Seinfelt was the featured guest on Book Gallery, a nationally syndicated radio talk show. Also that year an entry on Seinfelt appeared in Contemporary Authors, a reference series that provides information on approximately 112,000 writers in a wide range of media, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, journalism, and screenwriting. In February 2004, Final Drafts was chosen as an alternate selection of The Readers’ Subscription Book Club. In 2008, his novel Henry Boulanger of Mushannon Town was a semi-finalist in the Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Award contest and was subsequently published by the Amazon subsidiary BookSurge/ Create Space. In August 2009 BookSurge/ Create Space also published Symphonie Fantastique, a collection of his shorter novels. Seinfelt is single and presently resides in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, where he serves as a trustee and grant writer for the Philipsburg Historical Foundation and as secretary for the Committee for a Moshannon Valley Veterans Memorial. He is an avid reader and sportsman. An amateur pianist, he also enjoys fencing, fishing, hiking, swimming and spelunking.

On April 18, 2011, Mark Seinfelt will be launching his own internet radio talk show "Word Patriots"on WebTalk Radio.net. The internet is the future of radio and WebTalkRadio is number one in the business, the best in internet talk radio. The following is a description of Seinfelt's show: "Books are your passport to the universe. From your own chair you can be transported anywhere, travel to any time and explore the mysteries and grandeur of all creation. Reading not only feeds the imagination but is essential to our intellectual development. From period literature to futuristic science-fiction, Mark Seinfelt and his guests will celebrate heroic authors and iconic characters. Tune in each week and embrace the joys of reading and literature through this lively repartee from the literary world." WebTalk Radio is distributed by Matrix Media, a Chicago based talk radio firm. Seinfelt's first guest will be novelist Ed Desautels. You will be able to download the first show April 18 at http://webtalkradio.net/.

On January 21, 2011, Mark Seinfelt’s new novel Baldr and Beatrice was published by CreateSpace. To learn more about this tears-through-chuckles tale, see the product description in Books.

Mark Seinfelt, author of two great new books, “Henry Boulanger
of Mushannon Town,” a Pinnacle Book Achievement Award Winner,
and “Symphonie Fantastique,” featuring four novellas, two short
stories and an essay.

To say Mark Seinfelt is a prolific author would be an understatement indeed. Mark has honed his craft with many noted writers including William H. Gass, famous for his National Book Circle award winning essay collections, and his novella, "In the Heart of the Heart of the Country." Mark also studied under critically acclaimed author and Lannan Lifetime Acheivement award winner, Paul West as well as novelist and screenwriter Robert C.S. Downs.
Read about Mark and his highly acclaimed literary works in Publisher Profile.