Mark Matousek is a bestselling author, teacher, and speaker whose work focuses on personal awakening and creative excellence through transformational writing and self-inquiry. He brings over three decades of experience as a memoirist, editor, interviewer, survivor, activist, and spiritual seeker to his penetrating and thought-provoking work with students. His workshops, classes, and mentoring have inspired thousands of people around the world to reach their artistic and spiritual goals.
In his books and teaching, Mark guides you through an original process of self-examination called Writing To Awaken. This transformative method uses writing as a tool for insight, innovation, and clarity of purpose. Mark teaches that, “When you tell the truth, your story changes. When your story changes, your life is transformed.” His work is accessible to non-writers as well as those with writing experience. Scientific studies reveal that expressive writing has remarkable physical and psychological benefits. Writing to Awaken is a powerful, uniquely direct path to revealing the wisdom already inside you.
Biography
Mark Matousek is an award-winning author of eight books, Sex Death Enlightenment: A True Story, The Boy He Left Behind, When You’re Falling, Dive, Ethical Wisdom: The Search for a Moral Life, Ethical Wisdom for Friends, Mother of the Unseen World, Writing To Awaken: A Journey of Truth, Transformation, and Self-
Born in Los Angeles, Mark graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Berkeley in 1979, and received a fellowship to Worcester College, Oxford, after being awarded an M.A. in English Literature from UCLA in 1981. Upon graduation, he moved to New York, worked as a stringer for Reuters International, then in Newsweek’s letter department, before being hired as a proofreader at Andy Warhol’s Interview, where he became the magazine’s first staff writer and senior editor the following year. During his three years at Interview, he conducted hundreds of interviews with well-known figures in film, television, books, fine art, politics, design and science.
Mark left publishing in 1985 and spent most of following decade as a freelance writer and dharma bum in Europe, India, and the United States. Shifting professional gears from pop culture to psychology, philosophy and spirituality, he was a contributing editor at Common Boundary, where his column “The Naked Eye” appeared from 1994-1999, and where his expose, “America’s Darkest Secret,” was nominated for a National Magazine Award. He contributed essays to anthologies including Wrestling with the Angel, Voices of the Millennium, Oprah’s Best Life, and A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer. Mark worked with Sogyal Rimpoche on The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, and collaborated with writer Andrew Harvey on Dialogues with a Modern Mystic (and the British documentary of the same name). His first book, Sex Death Enlightenment: A True Story (Riverhead) was published in 1996 and became an international bestseller in ten countries.
Mark was co-editor on Still Here, by Ram Dass, and published his second memoir in 2000, The Boy He Left Behind: A Man’s Search for His Lost Father (Los Angeles Times Discovery Book). 2008 brought When You’re Falling, Dive: Lessons in the Art of Living (Bloomsbury) and two years later, Ethical Wisdom: The Search for a Moral Life, (Doubleday), described by Daniel Goleman as a “a riveting, fun, and insightful tour of life’s meaning and purpose, essential reading for anyone drawn to the query, “How ought we to live?” Writing To Awaken: A Journey of Truth, Transformation, and Self-Discovery was published in 2017) followed by Mother of the Unseen World, and Lessons From an American Stoic: How Emerson Can Change Your Life.
In 2013, Mark founded The Seekers Forum, a global online community for non-sectarian spiritual dialogue. He is on the faculty of The New York Open Center, The Omega Institute, 1440, Esalen, The Rowe Center, Hollyhock, and Omega Blue Spirit, Costa Rica. A MacDowell Fellow and member of Phi Beta Kappa, he focuses his work on personal awakening and creative excellence through transformational writing and self-inquiry. His workshops, classes, and mentoring have inspired thousands of people around the world to reach their artistic and personal goals, which is the mission of his company Mark Matousek Media LLC. He is a co-founder of V-Men, the male arm of V-Day, Eve Ensler’s movement to end violence against women and girls, and lives with his partner, David Moore, in Springs, New York.
