Mark Z. Danielewski

Mark Z. Danielewski is an American author, born in 1966. He is the son of Polish avant-garde film director Tad Danielewski and the brother of singer and songwriter Annie Decatur Danielewski, a.k.a. Poe.

Danielewski studied English Literature at Yale. He was rejected from every writing seminar he applied for, but completed undergraduate studies there. He then decided to move to the University of California, Berkeley, where he took the summer program in Latin. After graduating Danielewski spent a year in Paris, preoccupied mostly with writing.

When he came back to the USA , he pursued graduate studies at the USC School of Cinema-Television. He also served as an assistant editor and worked on sound for Derrida [1], a documentary based on the life of the Algerian-born French literary critic and philosopher Jacques Derrida.

House of Leaves is Danielewski’s first and probably best known novel, for which he was nominated in 2001 in the category First Novel.

In 2000, Danielewski toured with his sister across America at Borders Books and Music locations, promoting Poe’s album Haunted, which reflects elements of House of Leaves.

It appears that Danielewski was influenced by his father, which is noticeable in the way he writes his books; the typography he uses in his books resembles film techniques. His father’s death also proved to be a significant and hard moment in Danielewski’s private life.