Mark Spitzer Obituary, Death – Mark Spitzer, a novelist, poet, essayist, and literary translator has passed away unexpectedly. Mark was a professor at the University of Central Arkansas. He attended the University of Minnesota and received his Bachelor of Arts degree there in 1990. After that, he uprooted his life and relocated to Colorado, where he attended the University of Colorado and received his master’s degree in creative writing. After spending some time living on the road, he eventually settled down in Paris, where he worked as a Writer in Residence at the hippie bookstore Shakespeare and Company for a total of three years.
There, he translated works on French criminals and antisocials. In 1997, he made the journey to Louisiana, where he attended Louisiana State University to receive his Master of Fine Arts degree. After teaching creative writing and literature at Truman State University for a period of five years, he went on to teach the same subject at the University of Central Arkansas, where he also established and published the illustrious Toad Suck Review.
Additionally, Spitzer is a huge fan of alligator gars; the image below, which features Spitzer on the left and Jeremy Wade on the right, is from the episode of River Monsters on Animal Planet titled “Alligator Gar.” This monster measuring six feet and eight inches long and weighing 120 pounds was taken from the Trinity River in Texas. Spitzer held the title of official record holder for the yellow bullhead in the state of Nebraska. He went all over the world conducting study on gigantic fish before settling down in Hyde Park, New York.
He was the author of more than 30 books, some of which are titled “Season of the Gar: Adventure in Pursuit of America’s Most Misunderstood Fish,” “Return of the Gar,” “Beautifully Grotesque Fish of the American West,” and “In Search of Monster Fish: Angling for a More Sustainable Planet.” He passed away in 2010. We spoke with Spitzer on two separate occasions throughout the years, the first time in 2021 and the second time in 2015.