Writers Series to end spring semester with National Poetry Month celebration

Marshall University’s A.E. Stringer Visiting Writers Series will celebrate National Poetry Month with readings from West Virginia’s Poet Laureate Marc Harshman and Rachel Rinehart, winner of the 2016 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. These award-winning authors will be reading from their most recent publications and new work beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 12, in the Shawkey Room of the Memorial Student Center.

Harshman’s most recent full-length collection of poems, Believe What You Can, was published by The Vandalia Press of West Virginia University and was the winner of the 2017 Weatherford Award from the Appalachian Studies Association. He has written four chapbooks of poetry, including Rose of Sharon (Mad River Press). His work has been published in The Georgia Review, Emerson Review and many others in the United States and abroad. Harshman’s poems have been anthologized by a number of institutions. His fourteenth children’s title, Fallingwater, co-written with Anna Smucker, about Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic house, has just been published by Roaring Brook/Macmillan.

His earlier children’s books include The Storm, a Smithsonian Notable Book, and his 2016 release, One Big Family (Eerdmans). He also has a monthly show for West Virginia Public Radio, “The Poetry Break,” which began airing in January 2016. The seventh poet laureate of West Virginia, Harshman was born and raised on a farm in Randolph County, Indiana, and has lived his adult life in northern West Virginia.

Rinehart grew up in Chuckery, Ohio, and teaches at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Her poems have appeared in journals including Prairie Schooner, Mid-American Review, Beloit Poetry Journal and Colorado Review. This is her first poetry collection.

After the reading, there will be a Q&A with the audience and book signing. Books will be available for sale. Light refreshments will be served.

This is the second National Poetry Month reading hosted by the A.E. Stringer Visiting Writers Series, which may become an annual event, said Dr. Sarah A. Chavez, coordinator of the A.E. Stringer Visiting Writers Series. “It is a celebration of National Poetry Month and a recognition of the wonderful poetry being produced in Appalachia.”

The event is free and open to the public, with support from the Department of English, the College of Liberal Arts, Housing and Residence Life, and the West Virginia Humanities Council.

For more information, contact Chavez by e-mail at schavez@marshall.edu or by phone at 304-696-3341.

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Photos: Poets Marc Harshman (left) and Rachel Rinehart will read from their work at Marshall University April 12.