The Glenville State College Speaker Series will continue on Friday, February 20th when acclaimed West Virginia poet, storyteller, and children’s author, Marc Harshman, will be on campus. Mr. Harshman will speak from 9-11 a.m. in the Presidents Auditorium in the Heflin Administration building about his career as a children’s author.

Mr. Harshman will then conduct a creative writing workshop focusing on the art of storytelling in AB 308 from 1– 2:30 p.m. Beginning writers, and anyone interested in learning more about the art of storytelling are welcome. Both events are wonderful opportunities for those interested in education, children’s literature, storytelling, or creative writing.

Raised in Indiana, Harshman has lived his adult life in West Virginia with his wife, Cheryl Ryan (author, artist, & librarian), and his daughter, Sarah. The author of eleven picture books for children, he is also a poet and storyteller. His children's books have been published in Spanish, Korean, Danish, and Swedish. ONLY ONE was a Reading Rainbow review title on PBS TV, and THE STORM was a Junior Library Guild selection, a Smithsonian Notable Book for Children, a Children's Book Council Notable Book for Social Studies, and a 1995 Parent's Choice Award recipient. "Booklist" has called this same title "a knowing book that will speak to all children about self-image and hard-won success." Mr. Harshman was honored in 1994 by receiving the Ezra Jack Keats / Kerlan Collection Fellowship from the University of Minnesota for research on Scandinavian myth and folklore. He was also named the West Virginia State English Teacher of the Year by the West Virginia English Language Arts Council in 1995. More recently, he was named the recipient of the West Virginia Arts Commission Fellowship in Poetry for the year 2000 and the Fellowship in Children’s Literature for 2008. He holds degrees from Bethany College, Yale University Divinity School, and the University of Pittsburgh.

His newest children’s book is ONLY ONE NEIGHBORHOOD, (co-authored & illustrated by Barbara Garrison, 2007.) This newest title is being hailed as the “rich companion to the classic ONLY ONE.” Other recent children’s titles include ROADS (Cavendish, 2002) and RED ARE THE APPLES (Harcourt, 2001), the latter co-written with his wife, Cheryl Ryan. His third chapbook of poems, LOCAL JOURNEYS, has recently been published by the Finishing Line Press [Cincinnati, OH]. Additional children’s stories may also be found in Cricket Magazine.

The Glenville State College Speaker Series events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Dr. Jonathan Minton, GSC Assistant Professor of English, at 462-7361 ext. 7322.