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Marc Harshman, West Virginia’s poet laureate, was born in Indiana. He studied at Bethany College, Yale Divinity School, and the University of Pittsburgh. He started writing poetry in high school and published his first poem at Yale.
His first poetry book, Turning Out the Stones, came out in 1983. He later wrote many children’s books, including The Storm (1995), which was named a Smithsonian National Book for Children, and Red Are the Apples (2001), co-written with his wife, Cheryl.
He taught for many years, including at Sand Hill School, a small three-room school in Marshall County. He still visits schools to teach writing.
In 2012, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin named him the state’s ninth poet laureate. In 2013, he read his poem A Song for West Virginia at the state’s 150th birthday celebration in both Wheeling and Charleston. Harshman says living in West Virginia inspires his writing.
