Mark J. Mitchell was born in Chicago and grew up Catholic in southern California. He studied writing and Medieval Literature at UC Santa Cruz under Raymond Carver, George Hitchcock, Barbara Hull, and Robert M. Durling.

Mr. Mitchell's poems have appeared in numerous periodicals over the last thirty-five years, as well as the anthologies Good Poems, American Places, Hunger Enough, and Line Drives. His novels The Magic War and Knight Prisoner will both be published in the coming year. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, the film maker and documentarian Joan Juster.

For many years Mr. Mitchell made his living in the fine wine business.