Marcus Slease
Irish Prose Poet and Novelist
Marcus Slease is an Irish poet from Portadown, N. Ireland. Teetering on the age 12, after a Mormon conversion, his family immigrated to the United States in 1985. First, a trailer park in Vallejo, California and then later North Las Vegas and Hurricane, Utah. At the end of 2005, Marcus turned in his resident alien card for the United States of America and reduced his life to 15 kilos to travel the world, live a minimalist and simple existence, and work on his art.
He has worked many jobs in many places and comes from a working class background. Some jobs include: construction worker, fast food worker, dishwasher, cleaner, telemarketer for Burpee Seeds, accidental death insurance, DirectTV, and AOL, warehouse shrink wrapper, door to door salesperson, Chevron gas attendant, and many others. For the past 18 years he has worked as an English teacher at various colleges, universities, and high schools and institutes. Currently, he teaches high school literature in Barcelona.
Marcus has performed his work at various festivals and events, such as Carrboro Poetry Festival in North Carolina, Soundeye in Cork, Ireland, The Prague Microfestival in Prague, The Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol, U.K. and The Parasol Unit, The British Library, The Southbank Centre, Free Word Centre, The Rich Mix, The Horse Hospital and Hardy Tree Gallery in London, U.K.
His writing has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, featured in Best British Poetry 2015, translated into Polish and Danish, and has appeared in many literary journals and anthologies in the U.K., Ireland, U.S., Norway, and Poland including: Tin House, New World Writing, The Lincoln Review, Poetry, Fence, Rain Taxi, and Versopolis Review. He has made his home in such places as Turkey, Poland, Italy, South Korea, the United States, and the United Kingdom – experiences that inform his writing. Currently, he lives in Sitges (Spain) and is working on the second novel of his trilogy: The Dreamlife of Honey as well as new books of prose poetry.
Never Mind the Beasts 