Marc Harshman

In Bear Run, Pennsylvania, a home unlike any other perches atop a waterfall. The water's tune plays differently in each of its sunlight-dappled rooms; the structure itself blends effortlessly into the rock and forest behind it. This is Fallingwater, a masterpiece equally informed by meticulous research and unbounded imagination, designed by the lauded American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. This book guides young readers through Wright's process designing Fallingwater, from his initial inspirations to the home's breathtaking culmination. It is a exploration of a man, of dreams, and of the creative process; a celebration of potential. Graceful prose and rich, dynamic illustrations breathe life into the story of Frank and Fallingwater, a man and home utterly unlike any other. A Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 2017 Blue Ribbon BookA National Council for the Social Studies Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People

Dispatch from the Mountain State 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 be race, the recent pandemic, or the reckless onslaught of the Appalachian mining industry, which is masterfully addressed in the long poem, "The Breach." Harshman's distinctive vision remains both surreal and familiar, whether expressed in a sonnet or the more common free-verse characteristic of most of his work. This collection of over forty poems sings with a fluid voice and dazzles with imagery that surprises and rings true, often underlain by and intertwined with the darker threads of our common living and dying as contemporary Appalachians. It is rare to find a poet like Harshman, who is deeply connected to the life of rural America and yet writes poetry untouched by any sentiment for the old ways found there.

Marc Harshman, Poet Laureate of West Virginia, offers up his newest full-length collection of poems and demonstrates his dependably keen observational skills that elevate landscapes and people into an almost mythic realm. In many of the poems there is, as well, a threatening presence from whose grim circumstances he wrestles, if not hope, glimmers of its possibilities. And always there are signature poems like "Poet in the Schools" that simply lift off the page with a storyteller's finesse "for every single one of us / who's ever not been called on / who's felt hung out to dry, been picked last, / been poked, tripped, and toppled, / lost, strung out, yearning, abused, dying / somewhere out of sight / in our private universes, and he, he has opened the rooms / of paradise / for us to see / how simply easy it is / to smile. . ."

Winner of the 20th Annual Blue Lynx PrizeIn Marc Harshman's prize-winning collection, actual war, age, and disaster mingle with dream and hallucinatory sadness to produce an edgy sweetness few American poets have managed to give us. The voices of the lost, and found, are strangely like our own, and the stories they tell, or imply, are familiar without ever seeming the least bit stale or contrived.For all the sadness in their subject matter, the poems are deeply humane, affectionate, restorative, and brilliantly told. The work is a unique treasure.

This collection of poetry by West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman explores the difficulty of living with an awareness of the eventual death of all living things. Each of its four sections suggests a coping mechanism for this inevitable predicament, from storytelling, to accepting darkness and death as a creative force, to enjoying disruption and chaos, and finally to embracing the mystery of life as the most triumphant story of all.These difficulties come ""not quite haphazardly"" and not without a ""last light"" something beyond and as ""sweet as apples"". With these moments of grace, Harshman taps into the satisfying richness that comes from unexpected revelations, helping us rise above the fragile recesses of life and death, all while portraying the lost rural worlds of the Midwest and Appalachia in ways untouched by sentiment or nostalgia.