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Mark Slouka is an American novelist and essayist. The son of Czech immigrants, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005. He is a frequent contributor to Harper's Magazine.
His 2013 novel Brewster was called "instantly mesmerizing" by Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Egan.
The subject matter of his 1996 book War of the Worlds: Cyberspace and the Assault on Reality encompasses the extent to which virtual reality and blurring of real life with corporate fantasy has become a "genuine cultural phenomenon".
In 2003 his first novel God's Fool fictionalised the life of Siamese twins, Chang and Eng. and his 2006 short story "Dominion", originally published in TriQuarterly, was included within the anthology Best American Short Stories 2006. His short story "The Hare's Mask," originally published in Harper's, was included in the anthology The Best American Short Stories 2011.
In his book Essays from the Nick of Time, Slouka argues that "The humanities are a superb delivery mechanism for what we might call democratic values" In one of the essays, "Quitting the Paint Factory," he states, "Idleness is ... requisite to the construction of a complete human being;... allowing us time to figure out who we are, and what we believe; by allowing us time to consider what is unjust, and what we might do about it."
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