West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Telling West Virginia's Story
West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman delivers the poetry of his predecessor in this Poetry Break. Irene McKinney was a remarkable woman, greatly…
West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman delivers the poetry of his predecessor in this Poetry Break. Irene McKinney was a remarkable woman, greatly admired as a poet and teacher, ” Harshman said. “She was the kind of poet who could accomplish in a few seconds that deep trust with her readers that compel them to follow her words.”
In this Poetry Break we hear three selection s from Vivid Companion, published by Vandalia Press of West Virginia University:
West Virginia University Press is set to publish West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman’s latest collection of poetry: Believe What You Can in October 2016. And the publishers are looking for help in choosing a cover for the book.
In Believe What You Can Harshman explores the struggle of having an awareness of the eventual death of all living things in four sections, each of which suggests a different coping strategy.
The cover contest includes a choice between three different covers.
Voting will be open until February 15. All three covers were designed by the press’s art director, Than Saffel.
Harshman was born in Indiana and came to West Virginia first to attend Bethany College. He later settled with his wife in the northern panhandle where he was a teacher for many years. He was appointed poet laureate by Governor Earl Ray Tomblin in May 2012 following the death of his predecessor, Irene McKinney, who served as poet laureate for 18 years.
Harshman has published several children’s books, and his last book of poetry, Green-Silver and Silent was well received by fans who found roughly thirty years of his poems under one cover. Harshman is featured on a new podcast from West Virginia Public Broadcasting called the Poetry Break, where he delivers poems of his own as well as other Appalachian poets’ work.
A new podcast from West Virginia Public Broadcasting features poets from Appalachia and around the world. The Poetry Break is hosted and curated by West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman.
Harshman delivers poems and commentary, and the first episode features some of his own work from Green-Silver and Silent , and published by Bottom Dog Press (2012), and the forthcoming Believe What You Can to be published by Vandalia Press of West Virginia University in 2016.
The Poetry Break is featured on West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s West Virginia Morning every third Thursday of the month.
Poet and activist Nikki Giovanni loves several things about Appalachia: its defense of freedom, and how the people here know when enough is enough in regards to material wealth.
Giovanni was the Writer-in-Residence for Shepherd University’s 2015 Appalachian Heritage Festival.
Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on June 7, 1943, but spent most of her early years in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1958, she moved back to Knoxville, where she lived with her grandparents.
She would later go on to receive her undergraduate degree from Fisk University in Nashville and attend graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University.
While growing up, Giovanni experienced segregation and became active in the Civil Rights Movement, which influenced much of her work.
Today, Giovanni lives in Virginia and is a professor at Virginia Tech.
Shepherd University’s Appalachian Heritage Writer-in-Residence is sponsored by the West Virginia Humanities Council and Shepherd’s Appalachian Studies Program.
Perhaps not surprisingly, West Virginia’s poet laureate, Marc Harshman, seems to thinks so.He’s been collaborating with several organizations, including…
Perhaps not surprisingly, West Virginia’s poet laureate, Marc Harshman, seems to thinks so.
He’s been collaborating with several organizations, including West Virginia Public Broadcasting, to conceive of new events that will bring more poetry to the daily lives of West Virginians.
Eat More Poetry
When asked why poetry should be broadcast or heard more often in any event, Harshman doesn’t mince words, he prepares them:
“I have a great faith in poetry to refocus in us what it means to be human and with every passing year I feel an ever-greater need to be reminded about what it is that we hold in common as men and women who value beauty and the kind of meanings revealed in artistic expression.
"I'm not embarrassed to continue to quote as immensely relevant, William Carlos Williams' adage that 'it is difficult to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.'"
“In a political season that is perhaps more sad and pathetic than ever before, perhaps the news that may be found in poetry will hold a brightness, a freshness more useful than the soundbites from talking heads reporting on the doings of the millionaires and corporate figureheads dominating what currently passes for news here in America.”
Poetry in Wheeling
One of the initiatives Harshman has undertaken is shaping a regular poetry series in Wheeling. The germ of the idea for the series sprouted out of conversations with Ohio County Public Library’s Sean Duffy, orchestrator of a popular weekly Lunch with Books program that features authors, poets, and more. Harshman says conversations with Duffy as well as memories of other events inspired the series.
“I recall the legendary James Wright Poetry Festival which had been held in Martins Ferry for many years and was truly a real part of the landscape for the poets in America.”
Harshman remembers how people came from all over to hear the writers who were gathered at the festival and to take workshops.
“People that were here remember that some of the events would occasionally take place in Wheeling so it seems only fitting that we can do it again, slightly differently.”
When he’s available, Harshman will host the Wheeling Poetry Series, which will occur three times each year. The inaugural event is September 29th at noon at the Ohio County Public Library and features Kentucky’s poet laureate, George Ella Lyon.
Lyon will read from her collection Many-Storied House. She’s also slated to give a workshop at West Liberty University earlier in the day, and a second reading in the evening that will kick off a second regular poetry initiative in Wheeling: The Word on the Blue Church (aptly named for the building where it will be held in downtown Wheeling).
The Word on the Blue Church will be a monthly series. Harshman, who also had a hand in shaping this series, says the plan is to rotate between more traditional readings by poets and fiction readers, feature story tellers, and on every third month there will be an open mic.
The Word on the Blue Church – Co-Hosted by Dr. Scott Hannah and occasionally by March Harshman
Wheeling Poetry Series – Hosted by Sean Duffy and Marc Harshman
Hear the latest radio special in honor of National Poetry Month Thursday, April 24 at 9 p.m.
In addition to being a public radio host, Al Letson is also a poet, playwright, and actor.
In this hour-long program, Letson will explore all facets of poetry. Poets from all over the country will speak about the craft, the lifestyle, and the resurgence of poems.