Mark O'Connell (born 23 June 1979) is an Irish author and journalist. His debut book, To Be a Machine, was published in 2017, followed in 2020 by Notes from an Apocalypse. His third book, A Thread of Violence, was published in 2023.
He has written for publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, and The Guardian.
He is also the author of the Kindle Single Epic Fail: Bad Art, Viral Fame, and the History of the Worst Thing Ever (Byliner/The Millions), as well as an academic study of the novels of John Banville.
O'Connell was born in Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1979, and grew up there. His father worked as a pharmacist. O'Connell has an older brother and a younger sister. He studied English at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), completed a PhD on the novels of John Banville, and graduated in 2011. He lives in Dublin.
In 2017, O'Connell published To Be a Machine. Described by The New York Times Book Review as "a gonzo-journalistic exploration of the Silicon Valley techno-utopians' pursuit of escaping mortality", it is an investigation of transhumanism. It was the winner of the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize, and the Rooney Prize in 2019.
O'Connell's second book, published in 2020, is Notes from an Apocalypse. A book about apocalyptic anxieties, it was described by Esquire as "deeply funny and life-affirming, with a warm, generous outlook even on the most challenging of subjects."
His third book, A Thread of Violence, about the Irish murderer Malcolm Macarthur, was published in 2023.
O'Connell has written essays for The New York Times Magazine on the subjects of pessimism and parenthood, and the TV show Game of Thrones, and for The Guardian on turning 40, and the benefits of isolation. He is also an opinion columnist for The Irish Times.
O'Connell has been awarded the Wellcome Book Prize and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His debut book, To Be a Machine, was a finalist for the 2017 Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize and was shortlisted for the 2017 Baillie Gifford Prize.
In 2020, it was announced that a theatrical adaptation of To Be a Machine was to be performed as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival. Titled To Be a Machine (Version 1.0), the adaptation by theatre company Dead Centre saw O'Connell's character played by Jack Gleeson. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the performance was online only.