Stephen Marche (; born 1976)[1] is a Canadian novelist, essayist, and cultural commentator. He is an alumnus of the University of King's College[2] and City College of New York (CUNY).[3] In 2005, he received a doctorate in early modern English drama from the University of Toronto.[4] He taught Renaissance drama at CUNY until 2007, when he resigned in order to write full-time.[5]
Marche is a contributing editor at Esquire, for which he writes a monthly column entitled "A Thousand Words about Our Culture". In 2011, this column was a finalist for the American Society of Magazine Editors award for columns and commentary.[6] Marche's articles also appear in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic,[7] The Walrus, The Guardian,[8] and other publications. Marche is also a weekly contributor to CBC Radio.
Marche's novel Raymond and Hannah was published in 2005. An anthology of short stories linked by a common plot element, Shining at the Bottom of the Sea, followed in 2007.[9] How Shakespeare Changed Everything was published in 2011.[10] [11] Another novel, The Hunger Of The Wolf, was published in February 2015.[12] Marche's take on the state of male–female relations in the 21st century, The Unmade Bed: The Messy Truth About Men and Women in the Twenty-First Century, was published in March 2017 with contributions from his wife.[13]
Marche wrote an opinion piece published by The New York Times on August 14, 2015, titled "The Closing of the Canadian Mind."[14] In this article he was critical of Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada, linking him with Rob Ford, former Mayor of Toronto who was involved in a crack cocaine scandal. Marche also published an opinion piece in The New York Times on November 25, 2017, titled "The Unexamined Brutality of the Male Libido,"[15] about the challenges and necessity of male engagement with feminism.
Marche wrote an essay published by The New York Times Book Review on February 26, 2023, titled "A Writer's Lament: The Better You Write, the More You Will Fail".[16] The essay discussed writing and failure and noted that "failure" is normal for writers much of the time, and that near-obsessive persevering in the face of failure to be published is the mark of a true writer. In particular, he noted that a writer may have commercial success at times, but still, their best work may be the biggest failure (perhaps only recognized after a writer has died--using Melville's Billy Budd as an example). In the last paragraph of the essay, Marche wrote: "Good writers offer advice. Great writers offer condolences."
Marche is married to Sarah Fulford, the former editor-in-chief of Toronto Life magazine.[17] Fulford is a daughter of Canadian journalist Robert Fulford. Marche and Fulford have a son and daughter,[18] and live in Toronto.