Donald R. Marshall: Mormon Author

Donald R. Marshall is a writer and an emeritus professor of humanities. While at Brigham Young University, he managed the International Cinema for twenty-five years, the largest and longest-running foreign film program in the country. His career in humanities is reflected in his life’s pursuits; he has won awards in writing, painting, photography, composing, directing, and set designs. He and his wife, Jean, have been staunch supporters of BYU’s Homecoming Spectacular for more than forty years.

Marshall was reared in Panguitch, Utah. He earned his bachelor’s degree in art with minors in French and music and his master’s degree in American literature from BYU. He earned his doctoral degree from the University of Connecticut in Storrs.

Marshall began writing at age fifteen and won a silver medal for “excellence in writing and art” in The Deseret News contest. He has published a collection of stories, Frost in the Orchard (Brigham Young University Press 1977; Deseret Book, 1985); a novel Zinnie Stokes, Zinnie Stokes (Deseret Book, 1984); and a children's book, Enchantress of Crumbledown, (Deseret Book, 1990). His short story "The Week-end," which was also included in A Believing People (Brigham Young University Press, 1974), is from his first collection, The Rummage Sale (Heirloom Publications, 1972; republished by Peregrine Smith, 1975; Deseret Book, 1985; and Tabernacle Books, 1999). He took first place in the 1988 Utah Arts Council Contest and first place in the 1989 Deseret Book Children's Book Contest. Stories from his collection Frost in the Orchard won an Association for Mormon Letters award for fiction in 1978. His story, "Lavender Blue," was published in Sunstone magazine (March-April 1981) and in Greening Wheat: Fifteen Mormon Stories (Orion Books, 1983).

As a young man, he served in the Army National Guard and waited a year to find out if he would be sent to Germany as part of the Berlin Wall crisis.

Marshall is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He and his wife live in Utah.