Willard Marsh

Born in Oakland, California, in 1922, Willard Marsh first made his mark as a talented trumpet and trombone player. Music helped support his early education, but World War II interrupted those plans, and he later returned to college under the GI Bill, eventually studying at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Marsh published short fiction in magazines and anthologies and wrote across an unusually wide range, including science fiction, poetry, and literary fiction. He also taught at several universities, building a career that joined creative work with academic life.

He spent important years in Ajijic, Mexico, where he became part of the area's expatriate literary scene. That experience shaped Week with No Friday (1965), a novel set in the village, and adds another dimension to a body of work that was curious, varied, and hard to pin to just one shelf.