Mark Kramer’s work has appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Anthony Bourdain’s Explore Parts Unknown on CNN, CityLab (The Atlantic), PublicSource, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Quarterly, The Truth About the Fact: An International Journal of Literary Nonfiction, Prism, geez, Vox Populi, Pennsylvania Magazine, Blue Earth Review, and with the Religion News Service, among others.

Of late, he’s been writing on urban nature, empathy, and economic development.

Mark published a book on urban slum communities in developing countries, those shantytowns in which residents (usually squatters) have pieced together shacks of plywood and corrugated metal and other piecemeal materials. Entire families live in these small shacks, often without secure access to clean water, electricity, or bathroom facilities. Much less good jobs and education and health care. Then more people come and build more shacks, until you have big, dense settlements, sometimes with hundreds of thousands of people. The book is called Dispossessed: Life In Our World’s Urban Slums. It led Mark to slum communities all around the world – from Bangkok to Cairo, Manila to Nairobi. And you should read it. For your convenience, here’s where you can buy a copy. Or, heck, just get it used. Mark wont be offended. The important thing is that you read it. (Because: did you know that one in every six humans lives in a slum?!)

Mark teaches creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh, putting to use degrees in fiction, journalism, and creative nonfiction.

Mark has this odd quirk in which he writes about himself in the third person. Contact him to discuss his writing, and he’ll promise to hold this quirk at bay.

reach him at:

“Mark Kramer’s attention to detail and diligence in meeting deadlines made him one of Geneva Global’s top contract-based writers.” 

– Michael E. Bratsis
former Managing Editor at Geneva Global