Marc Estrin is a writer and peace activist who lives in Burlington, Vermont. His novels,Insect Dreams, The Half Life of Gregor Samsa, The Education of Arnold Hitler, Golem Song, and The Lamentations of Julius Marantz have won critical acclaim. His memoir, Rehearsing With Gods: Photographs and Essays on the Bread & Puppet Theater (with Ron Simon, photographer) won a 2004 theater book of the year award. He is currently working on a novel about the dead Tchaikovsky.
Estrin studied theater directing and worked in repertory theater and continues to be involved with the famed Bread and Puppet Theater, is an ordained Unitarian Universalist Minister, and is a cellist and vocalist who has performed with several symphony orchestras.
I try to deal with political/cultural/philosophical material somewhat laterally — by inserting the issues into fiction settings. It’s my way of writing “political novels” without writing “political novels” — and thus hopefuly reaching an audience which wouldn’t read political novels, or even necessarily have thought about such issues at all. It’s a strategy with a small chance of success, small but not zero.
