Mark Joseph Salzman is an American writer, born on December 3, 1959, in Greenwich, Connecticut. Salzman is best known for his 1986 memoir Iron & Silk, which describes his experiences living in China as an English teacher in the early 1980s.

Salzman grew up in Ridgefield, Connecticut, as the oldest child of a piano teacher mother and a social worker father. He studied Chinese Language and Literature at Yale University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude in 1982. He then spent two years in Changsha, Hunan, teaching English at Hunan Medical College and studying martial arts with Pan Qingfu, a Chinese martial arts teacher and kung fu movie actor. His experiences in China are recounted in his first book, Iron & Silk. This book received several literary awards and was adapted into a 1990 film of the same title, for which Salzman wrote the screenplay and starred as himself.

In addition to writing, Salzman is a skilled cello player. During high school, he played for the Norwalk Youth Symphony, and in 1996, he performed as a guest cellist with Yo-Yo Ma and others at Alice Tully Hall.

After receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2000, Salzman spent time as a stay-at-home parent. He was featured in the 2007 documentary Protagonist, directed by his wife, Jessica Yu. In 2011, he presented a multimedia monologue titled An Atheist in Freefall at the New York Public Library.

Salzman continued writing both fiction and nonfiction after Iron and Silk, including a memoir about growing up in suburbia and another about his work as a creative writing instructor for juvenile delinquents. His most recent memoir is The Man in the Empty Boat from 2012, which explores his search for equanimity after personal catastrophes.

Salzman and his wife, Jessica Yu, an Academy Award-winning filmmaker, have two daughters and reside in Southern California.