Marjory Heath Wentworth
Marjory Heath Wentworth (born June 3, 1958) is an American poet. She was named by Governor Mark Sanford as the sixth South Carolina Poet Laureate in 2003. Biography Early life and education Wentworth was born Marjory Heath on June 3, 1958, in Lynn, Massachusetts, and raised in nearby Swampscott. Her parents were John and Mary (Tully) Heath. As a child, she spent many years in and out of hospitals to correct some congenital organ anomalies. Adding further hardship was the fact that her father, John, a purchasing agent for Parker Brothers, died of leukemia when she was just 14 years old. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College (where she majored in anthropology, political science, and dance) and went on to receive her M.A. in Writing from New York University (NYU). While at NYU, she studied under Galway Kinnell, Phil Levine, Joseph Brodsky, and Carolyn Forché. After Mount Holyoke, she did some studies at Oxford University. Career While still a graduate student at New York University, Wentworth worked in refugee resettlement with the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. She went on after graduating to work as a book publicist with Readers International, a branch of Amnesty International, interviewing with Brodsky