Mark Salzman (b. 1959) is an award-winning novelist and memoirist. The son of a social worker and a music teacher, Salzman grew up in Connecticut and studied Chinese language and philosophy at Yale University. After college, he spent two years in China, learning martial arts from some of China's most renowned teachers, an experience he documented in his bestselling memoir Iron & Silk. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, director Jessica Yu, and their two daughters.