MARC HARSHMAN
Poet Laureate of West Virginia
M
arc Harshman is a Poet Laureate for the State of West Virginia.
He
was appointed as West Virginia's Poet Laureate on May 18, 2012, by former governor Earl Ray Tomblin. Harshman is well-known for his numerous
children's
books
and
works in public poetry. He currently lives in Moundsville, WV. From Marc Harshman:
GREETINGS TO MY YOUNGER FRIENDS In my life as a writer nothing has been more important than learning to read. Growing up in the farm country of Indiana, books enabled me to imagine being somewhere else: sleeping on top of the Egyptian pyramids with Halliburton; trekking through the jungles of India with Corbett; or wandering along the Cornwall coast of England with Merlin and Arthur.
is not a better acorn going than a book to grow a great life.
DISPATCH FROM THE MOUNTAIN STATE
have now written my own books that may help you imagine
(summary from Amazon)
being in a place you might not have thought possible. For
One of Harshman’s most popular books is Dispatch from the
of childhood – Cornwall, England – and perhaps you will, too, someday, make it to a place only dreamed of now through the invented world of a good book. I do know this, dream or no dream, you will need words to get there.
Mountain State. This book encompasses the trademark themes of a mature poet—death, despair, dread, and the seeming randomness with which all of these come into life. The dispatches provide, if sometimes obliquely, a keen awareness of the troubled times within which we live, whether the flashpoint
Some of my books are made from experiences that really
be race, the recent pandemic, or the reckless onslaught of the
happened to me. SNOW COMPANY is the best example. The
Appalachian mining industry, which is masterfully addressed
blizzard that occurs in that story is almost exactly like a blizzard
in the long poem, “The Breach.” Harshman’s distinctive vision
I experienced as a boy in Indiana. Living in West Virginia,
remains both surreal and familiar, whether expressed in a
whether in the country or close to it in small towns, has been
sonnet or the more common free-verse characteristic of most
important, too. By keeping me close to much that I recall from
of his work.
my childhood, West Virginia is important because it is the place
This collection of over forty poems sings with a fluid voice
that has been home ever since I went away to Bethany College in 1969.
JUL 2026
you are a reader – great oaks from little acorns grow – and there
Well, I have kept at it – my love of words and imagination – and
myself I have now even made it to one of those imagined places
30
If you are not sure if you are a writer, don't worry. Just make sure
and dazzles with imagery that surprises and rings true, often underlain by and intertwined with the darker threads of our
It is hard to explain, but I am the kind of writer who needs to
common living and dying as contemporary Appalachians. It is
know where the woods are and that there are good friends and
rare to find a poet like Harshman, who is deeply connected to
neighbors nearby. Maybe that shows in my work. What do you
the life of rural America and yet writes poetry untouched by any
think?
sentiment for the old ways found there.