Photo by Lawrence Sumulong
About
Simeon Marsalis (he/him) is a multi-disciplinary writer from New Rochelle, NY, with over 10 years of experience.
He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers University-Newark in 2019, and his first novel, As Lie Is to Grin, was published by Catapult in 2017, which was on the shortlist for the Center for Fiction’s first novel prize. His short story, “Dryer” appears in Epoch Magazine’s 70:2 edition, and he has written poems for the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, a screenplay for Ken Mask Studios, and a series of Flash Fictions to accompany the photography of Lawrence Sumulong for the Fashion Institute of Technology. He is currently working on his second novel, tentatively entitled “End Times.”
Marsalis is an Assistant Professor of Jazz Literature at Rutgers University-Newark where he was an adjunct from 2017-2022. He has designed courses in Jazz Poetry, Jazz Prose, and Africana Studies. Alongside his role as an educator for the University, Marsalis has led workshops at Newark Public Library, The Cooper Union, and Miami University. Simeon was also a founder of the Lampblack literary collective in 2020, and a founding board member of the Lampblack Literary Foundation where he continues to work on the community board and in the department of operations.