Writing

Fiction

“Drag Brunch,” After Dinner Conversation, November 2023.

“Pod,” The Offing, September 2023.

“The False Prophet of New Beginnings,” Tahoma Literary Review, March 2023.

“Four Endings to a Grindr Romance,” Taco Bell Quarterly, February 2023.

Read online. Nominated for Best of the Net 2023. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize 2023.

“The Reptile Room,” Leland Quarterly, December 2012.


Essays & Poems

“Morning Incense,” Nude Bruce Review Issue 16, March 2026.

“Neighborly,” The Rumpus, February 2026.

“Justin Torres wants to keep things messy” (Interview), Porter House Review, March 2025.

“Erotic Bodywork,” Electric Literature, March 2024.

“Chicken Daddy,” New South, July 2023.

“Grande Caramel Macchiato,” Epiphany, June 2023.

“Scot’s Story,” The Places We’ve Been: Field Reports from Travelers Under 35, July 2013.

Latest posts

  • Neighborly

    Neighborly

    A love letter, a eulogy, an apology, a thank you. Read it now in the Rumpus.

  • Justin Torres wants to keep things messy

    Justin Torres wants to keep things messy

    Read my interview with National Book Award-winning Justin Torres on Porter House Review!

  • Erotic Bodywork

    Erotic Bodywork

    Check out my sauciest, shame-iest, most well-oiled essay yet at Electric Literature!

© Mark Bessen