Mark Mansfield was born in Fort Hood, Texas, in 1951.  He grew up in Kentucky, Ohio, Kansas, Alabama, Virginia, and Taipei, Taiwan, where he graduated from high school in 1969.  He received a B.A. in English from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1976 and an M.A. in Writing from Johns Hopkins University in 2002.  He has worked as a construction laborer, gas station attendant, theatre usher, night watchman at a concrete company, proofreader for a Christmas card printer, guard on sound stages in Hollywood, Assistant to the Publications Officer at the U.S. Supreme Court, publications specialist for a law firm, substitute teacher, and a rock ‘n’ roll musician.  His poems have appeared in many publications, including The Adirondack Review, Bayou, Blue Mesa Review, The Evansville Review, Fourteen Hills, Gargoyle, Iota Poetry Quarterly, The Ledge, Magma, Salt Hill, Scrivener Creative Review, Tulane Review, and Unsplendid.  He was a 2015 Pushcart Prize nominee.  Currently, he lives in Geneva, New York.