About Frank Levering
Frank Levering is a multi-dimensional talent – a farmer, author, playwright, poet, producer and scriptwriter, with a wide range of credits. He is the co-author with Wanda Urbanska of five books, including the critically acclaimed Simple Living: One Couple’s Search for a Better Life (Viking/ Penguin: 1992), Moving to a Small Town: a Guidebook for Moving from Urban to Rural America (Simon & Schuster: 1996), and Nothing’s Too Small to Make a Difference (John F. Blair: 2004). He also has published a collection of poetry, Blue Light (Orchard Gap Press: 1997). His many plays, including the North Carolina state award-winning It’s Your Life, have been performed in theatres around the country. In 1999, Frank founded and remains producer for the innovative environmental Cherry Orchard Theatre in Virginia.
Frank has been seen on a number of TV and radio shows, such as The Oprah Winfrey Show, CBS This Morning and NPR’s All Things Considered, and he was featured in the PBS films Running Out of Time and Escape From Affluenza. Articles about Frank and his work have appeared in scores of magazines and newspapers, including Harvard, People, and Southern Living magazines, and newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, and USA Today. Frank’s hundreds of articles and reviews on a wide variety of topics have appeared in many publications including the Washington Post, Smithsonian magazine, the Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times_.
Frank Levering was born in Mount Airy, North Carolina, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where he played football, studied with poet laureate Richard Wilbur, and earned a degree in English and American Studies. After graduating from Harvard Divinity School with a Master’s in Theological Studies, Frank worked seven years in Los Angeles as a screenwriter and free-lance journalist for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. While in California, Frank worked for dozens of film producers and production companies. Frank co-wrote the film Parasite in 3-D, which was seen worldwide and was one of the top-grossing films of 1982. This campy, cult horror film introduced to the screen a then teen-age actress named Demi Moore. Frank is a recipient of the Governor’s Screenwriting Award of Virginia.
The youngest of six in a Quaker family, Frank was raised on the family farm, Levering Orchard, just above the North Carolina state line in southern Virginia. In 1986, he and Wanda Urbanska moved from Los Angeles to the orchard, which is known throughout the Southeast for its pick-your-own cherries. Levering Orchard, which was founded by Frank’s grandparents in 1908, is now the largest cherry orchard in the South.
Frank is writer, director and co-producer of the PBS series, SIMPLE LIVING WITH WANDA URBANSKA.