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More than anything else, though, he enjoys taking the most powerful
messages of his work and sharing them with live audiences. That is
how he became such an inspirational public speaker. In the last few
years alone, Marx has been the featured speaker for more than 100
events hosted by schools, corporations, community groups, and
faith-based organizations.
"In the beginning, I was a writer because that's what I enjoyed and
that's how I earned a living," Marx says. "Now I write because I
want to speak into people's lives and try to make a difference in
this world."
His favorite speaking topics are also the subjects of his last two
books. In Season of Life (2004, Simon & Schuster), it is a
remarkable program called Building Men for Others, which offers a
whole new definition of what it means to be a man. In It
Gets Dark Sometimes (2000, JAM Publishing), it is organ donation
and transplantation.
Marx is a native of Rye Brook, New York, and a graduate of
Northwestern University. His Pulitzer, awarded for a series of
articles on cheating in college basketball, came while working for
the Lexington (Kentucky) Herald-Leader. His first two books --
Inside Track (1990, Simon & Schuster) and One More Victory
Lap (1996, Athletics International) -- were written with Olympic
champion Carl Lewis. Now a freelance journalist
based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Marx has written for numerous publications including Sports
Illustrated, Newsweek, Time, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles
Times, and the Baltimore Sun.
In addition to his writing, Marx is co-founder and director of the
non-profit Wendy Marx Foundation for Organ Donor Awareness
(established in 1990). The foundation is named for his sister, a
liver transplant recipient who parlayed her own health challenges
into a powerful message of hope for others. Wendy died, at the age
of 36, in 2003. But Jeffrey Marx and the Wendy Marx
Foundation will always continue her important work.
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