WA Poet Laureate to Read at Orcas Center

Monday, April 3, 7:30 p.m., Orcas Center Madrona Room

— from Susannah Weaver —

Gonzaga professor and award-winning poet, Tod Marshall, was appointed the fourth Washington State Poet Laureate by Governor Jay Inslee in January 2016. Marshall’s term runs February 1, 2016, to January 31, 2018. He is the first State Poet Laureate from Eastern Washington.  He succeeds Elizabeth Austen, the state’s previous laureate, who served from 2014–2016. Kathleen Flenniken (2012–2014) and Sam Green (2007–2009) held the position prior to Austen.

Marshall is the author of three poetry collections: “Dare Say” (2002), “The Tangled Line” (2009), and “Bugle” (2014). “Dare Say,” Marshall’s first collection of poetry, was the 2002 winner of the University of Georgia’s Contemporary Poetry Series. “The Tangled Line,” his second poetry collection was published by Canarium Press in 2009, and was a finalist for the Washington Book Award. His third collection of poetry, “Bugle,” was published by Canarium, and won the Washington State Book Award in 2015.

Marshall has also published a collection of his interviews with contemporary poets, “Range of the Possible” (EWU Press, 2002), which was named to the New York City Public Library Poetry Book List for 2003; and an accompanying anthology of the interviewed poets’ work, “Range of Voices” (2005). In 2005, he was awarded a Washington Artists Trust Fellowship. He is also the recipient of the 2015 Humanities Washington Award for Scholarship and Service.

Marshall was born in Buffalo, New York and grew up in Wichita, Kansas. He studied English and philosophy at Siena Heights University, earned an MFA from Eastern Washington University, and graduated with his PhD from The University of Kansas. He lives in Spokane, Washington, and teaches at Gonzaga University where he is the Robert K. and Ann J. Powers Professor Chair of the Humanities.