Trained as a journalist, I write about art and aesthetic philosophy and creative nonfiction about culture and personal history. Much of my work focuses on embodiment and the body as a tool for discovery.
I’ve recently completed a book manuscript, a hybrid of cultural criticism, social activism, and lyric memoir: “How To Feel Yourself Up: A Meditation on Identity, Empathy, the Faggot Body, and the Wonder of Survival.” I’ve published adaptations of chapters in essays—including one that was included on the “Notable Essays” list in Best American Essays 2025 and another that was a finalist for the Michael Steinberg Memorial Essay Prize—and was awarded a Fellowship at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts for work on this project. I am currently adapting other chapters as solo performance pieces.
I have also written extensively about the embodied experience of art viewing, most recently publishing and lecturing about the balance of aesthetic, political, ethical, and social content in art. I won the Hannah Arendt Prize for Critical Theory and Creative Research and was a finalist for the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant.
For many years I ran the publications and training programs at an HIV- and LGBTQ+-related mental health agency—the UCSF AIDS Health Project, now Alliance Health Project—where I published two books: a handbook I co-wrote (UCSF AIDS Health Project/distributed by Ten Speed Press) and an anthology I co-edited (Jossey-Bass). I also edited newsletters and co-edited a monograph series on HIV-related counseling and mental health.
I was born in New York and live in the San Francisco Bay Area with my partner. I hold MAs in Visual and Critical Studies (California College of the Arts) and journalism (University of California, Berkeley) and a BA in English and gender studies (University of Pennsylvania). I studied and performed contact improvisation dance at Project Artaud (San Francisco) and solo performance at The Marsh Theater (San Francisco/Berkeley), and studied singing and acting at Studio ACT (San Francisco) and life drawing at the 23rd Street Studio (San Francisco).
You can reach me at rob[at]rob-marks[dot]com.