The Editor

Mark Diaz

Editor, publisher, and the person who answers the phone when you call our Geraldine Lane office.

A short biography

Mark Diaz was born in Queens in 1984. He studied English Literature at Hunter College and spent his twenties working as a copy editor for a small architecture imprint in SoHo. He began training jiu-jitsu in 2014, after a back injury made him give up running.

He founded Jahanian Combat Press in 2019 with a single typewriter, a borrowed laser printer, and a five-year lease on a one-room office at 1529 Geraldine Lane. He still edits every manuscript by hand on the first pass.

When he is not on the mats or behind the desk, he can usually be found walking the East River with a paperback in his coat pocket.

A Working Life

Selected dates.

2006BA, English Literature — Hunter College, City University of New York.
2008–2014Copy editor at a small architecture imprint in SoHo.
2014Begins training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at a Tribeca academy.
2017Earns blue belt. Begins keeping the notebook that becomes The Jahanian Book.
2019Founds Jahanian Combat Press. First office on Geraldine Lane.
2022Publishes the first edition of The Jahanian Book.
2024Launches the quarterly Field Journal.
2026Second printing, with a new foreword.

I am not a great practitioner. I am a stubborn one. The press exists for the other stubborn ones.

— Mark Diaz