Mark Ari is an interdisclinary artist who teaches fiction, creative nonfiction, and writing-based hybrid arts at the University of North Florida. His published works include fiction, personal essays, and poetry, as well as music and art journalism. His novel, The Shoemaker’s Tale (Zephyr Press), received high praise in international trade and popular periodicals like the New York Times, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and the Jerusalem Post. Zephyr Press recently issued an electronic edition with funding from a National Endowment for the Arts Artworks Grant. Along with students, Ari founded Flock Literary Journal (formerly Fiction Fix) and Talon Review. He currently edits and curates for EAT, a recording label he established to produce electronic chapbooks.

For some years, after graduating with a BA from the State University of New York at Albany, Ari performed in theaters, clubs, bars, metro stations, parks, and street corners in the United States and abroad. Then, after earning an MFA in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, Ari traveled, performing songs and readings, as well as exhibiting his paintings in group and solo shows in the France, Spain, and the United States. Major exhibitions include the Broome Street Gallery, Southern Vermont Art Center, and the Giralda Center in Seville. Significant one-man shows were Blue Babies (Maryland Theatre, Hagerstown MD), Flatbush Serenade (Paramount Theater, Wilkes-Barre PA), and Songs for the Waste Laboratory, a commissioned work for the Living Theatre NYC. Most recently, Ari collaborates with Ginger Andro and Chuck Glicksman on multisensory installations, such as Via Brooklyn Bridge (2023 Olfactory Art Keller, NYC) and Colossus (2023 CICA Museum, Gimpo, South Korea).

Ari is a three-time Macdowell fellow. Other prestigious fellowships include the Ragdale Foundation (twice), the Ucross Foundation, the Valparaiso Foundation (Spain) and, most recently, the Hermitage Artists Retreat. At UNF, Ari received the Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award four times (2020, 2014, 2010, 2007), as well as the Outstanding Faculty Service Award (2017), the DLC Professor Empowerment Award from the Disability Resource Center (2012, 2011), and the Distinguished Advisor Award (2003).