Jack Marshall (author)

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Jack Marshall
Born (1936-02-25) February 25, 1936 (age 89)
Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States
Occupation(s)Poet, writer

Jack Marshall (born 1936) [1] is an American poet and author. He was born to an Iraqi father, and a Syrian mother of Jewish heritage. [2]

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Early life

Jack Marshall was born in February 25, 1936 in Brooklyn, New York. [1] He was raised speaking Arabic in a Mizrahi Jewish household, ruled by traditional Arab Jewish culture. [3] His father worked in the fabric industry. [4] He attended public school as well as a Hebrew school in his neighborhood.

Marshall attended Brooklyn College, where he studied literature. [4] The Young Men's Hebrew Association (YMHA) is where he attended night classes in poetry in 1960 with poets Robert Lowell and Stanley Kunitz. [4] [5]

Career and accolades

He is the author of numerous books and poems which reflect and explore his cultural heritage. Two examples, From Baghdad to Brooklyn: Growing Up in a Jewish-Arabic Family in Midcentury America, along with Millennium Fever:Poems, proved very successful. He was awarded the PEN West Award and was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, for From Baghdad to Brooklyn. [6]

He is the recipient of two Bay Area Book Reviewers Awards. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008.

Personal life

He has lived in El Cerrito, California since the early 2000s. [7]

Works

References