{{Short description|South African author and journalist}} {{Use South African English|date=August 2016}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Mark Gevisser | image = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = 1964 | birth_place = South Africa | death_date = | death_place = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | nationality = | other_names = | known_for = | education = | alma_mater = Yale University | employer = | occupation = Journalist | title = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | political_party = | boards = | children = | parents = | relatives = }} '''Mark Gevisser''' (born 1964) is a South African author and journalist. His latest book is ''The Pink Line: Journeys Across the World's Queer Frontiers'' (2020). Previous books include ''A Legacy of Liberation: Thabo Mbeki and the Future of the South African Dream'' and ''Lost and Found in Johannesburg: A Memoir.'' His journalism has appeared in many publications, including ''The Guardian'', ''The New York Times'', ''Granta'', and the ''New York Review of Books''.
==Early life== Mark Gevisser was born in 1964 in South Africa to a family of Lithuanian Jewish heritage.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Brockes|first=Emma|date=2014-07-11|title=Dispatcher by Mark Gevisser review: a love letter to Johannesburg|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/11/dispatcher-lost-found-johannesburg-mark-gevisser-review|access-date=2021-11-04|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref> He graduated from Yale University in 1987 ''magna cum laude'' with a degree in comparative literature.
==Career== Gevisser started his career in New York, where he worked for ''Village Voice'' and ''The Nation'' before returning to South Africa in 1990.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.markgevisser.com/aboutmark.htm |title=Mark Gevisser - About Mark |accessdate=2009-07-17 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531080937/http://www.markgevisser.com/aboutmark.htm |archivedate=31 May 2009 }}</ref> Over the years, his work has been published in the ''Mail & Guardian'', ''The Sunday Times'', the ''Sunday Independent'', ''The New York Times Magazine'', ''The Observer'', ''The Guardian''<ref>The Times(1)</ref> and ''The New York Times''.<ref>New York Times(1)</ref>
Gevisser's book on the South African president, ''Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred'', won the 2008 Alan Paton Award; his political profiles were collected as ''Portraits of Power: Profiles in a New South Africa'', published in 1996; and he co-edited ''Defiant Desire: Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa'' with Edwin Cameron.<ref>The Times(1)</ref> An abridged version of the Mbeki biography, ''A Legacy of Liberation: Thabo Mbeki and the Future of the South African Dream'', was published in 2009, with an epilogue briefly detailing Mbeki's ousting at the hands of Jacob Zuma. Gevisser's book ''Lost and Found in Johannesburg: A Memoir'' was published in 2014. It was among the finalists for that year's Jan Michalski Prize.
Gevisser joined the new political party Rise Mzansi in February 2024 as its 'strategic communications' advisor, disclosing this in a New York Review of Books article in October 2024, 3 months after the end of South Africa's 2024 elections in which the party obtained 0.42% of the national vote.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gevisser |first=Mark |date=23 October 2024 |title=Fragile Unity in South Africa |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/opinions/columnists/guestcolumn/mark-gevisser-fragile-unity-in-sa-lessons-for-rise-mzansi-after-the-2024-elections-20241125 |website=New York Review}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Gevisser |first=Mark |date=25 November 2024 |title=Fragile unity in SA: Lessons for Rise Mzansi after the 2024 elections |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/opinions/columnists/guestcolumn/mark-gevisser-fragile-unity-in-sa-lessons-for-rise-mzansi-after-the-2024-elections-20241125 |website=News24}}</ref>
=== Books ===
* ''Portraits of Power: Profiles in a Changing South Africa'' (David Philip, 1996, {{ISBN|9780864863140}}) * ''Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred'' (Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2007, {{ISBN|9781868423019}}) ** Abridged version: ''A Legacy of Liberation: Thabo Mbeki and the Future of the South African Dream'' (St. Martin's Press, 2009, {{ISBN|9780230611009}}) * ''Lost and Found in Johannesburg: A Memoir'' (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014, {{ISBN|9780374176761}}) * ''The Pink Line: Journeys Across the World's Queer Frontiers'' (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020, {{ISBN|9780374279967}})<ref>Briefly reviewed in the [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/09/21/wandering-in-strange-lands-the-pink-line-the-discomfort-of-evening-and-high-as-the-waters-rise September 21, 2020 issue] of ''The New Yorker'', p.67.</ref>
== Notes == {{reflist}}
== References == *{{cite web |url=http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Lifestyle/Article.aspx?id=782628 |title=Mark Gevisser biography |work=The Times |accessdate=8 March 2009 |ref=Times(1) }}{{Dead link|date=March 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
*{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/opinion/12gevisser.html?pagewanted=print |title=Op-ed: South Africa Grows Up |work=The New York Times |accessdate=8 March 2009 |first=Mark |last=Gevisser |date=12 December 2007 |ref=NYT(1)}}
== External links == * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080923052154/http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=847542 Extract from ''The Dream Deferred'']
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gevisser, Mark}} Category:1964 births Category:Living people Category:South African male journalists Category:Yale University alumni Category:South African gay writers Category:South African people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent