About Zac Northup
Writer. Historian. Researcher. Builder of tools for families who teach at home.
Zac Northup has taught students in high schools, career tech centers, and universities. He has been a published writer since 1996. Now he builds tools for families who teach at home.
Historian & researcher
- Taught entrepreneurship and presentation literacy in high schools and career tech centers, 2016–2021.
- Taught a semester of strategic marketing at Marshall University in the build-up to America250.
- Consulted for universities on veterans, entrepreneurship and academic programs.
- B.A., Political Science, Marshall University. M.A., History, University of North Carolina Wilmington.
In the trenches
- Founded and ran an educational nonprofit, 2016–2021.
- Grew it to four counties and six schools by 2020.
- The nonprofit was the subject of a one-hour WV Public Broadcasting documentary, 2019.
- Former member of the West Virginia America250 Commission.
Writer
- Published under his own name and for ghostwriting clients since 1996.
- Novels, short stories, novellas, academic curricula and ghostwritten family histories.
- Publisher and managing editor of National Guard Review, a defense and foreign policy journal, 1996–2003. Interviewed members of Congress, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, presidential candidates, corporate executives and soldiers on three continents.
- Most recent commission: a family history for former U.S. Representative David McKinley, covering 1650 to 1783.
Where it started
In 2016, after a career in financial services, Zac launched an educational nonprofit. The nonprofit taught high school students in rural West Virginia to conceptualize, pitch and launch small businesses. By 2020, it ran in four counties and six schools.
The capstone was an expedition. Students, chaperones and teachers flew to Denver and drove more than 2,500 miles through the western United States. They hiked in national parks and interviewed small-business owners and corporate executives along the way. Zac raised the money. The students paid nothing.
In 2019, WV Public Broadcasting aired a one-hour documentary about the program (opens in a new tab).
Then COVID closed the schools and scattered the students, and the nonprofit ended. Zac took what he learned in the trenches and built two things for families who teach at home.
What Zac is building now
Pharos Terminal. You teach. Pharos Terminal hands you lessons drawn from today's world. It turns real events into Nexus Points, builds ready-to-teach curriculum packets tagged to West Virginia Academic Standards, and keeps your records as you go: lessons, hours and work samples, in one parent tracker. Built for homeschoolers, micro-schools and learning pods with students in grades 7–12. Opens November 2026. $399 per student per year.
Reality Writes! A self-paced curriculum that ends with a published book. Students choose a real historical subject, research it, write a novella of 18,000 to 25,000 words, design the cover and layout, and publish it as a paperback on Amazon. Reality Writes! is intended for 11th–12th graders, and advanced students no younger than 8th grade.
Both teach real skills young Americans can use to earn a living.
The Writer: Preserving the Stories Others Overlook
Zac's books come from real-world experience and tell the stories of America. Available in audio, print and eBook.
Veteran of the U.S. Army and Army National Guard. Married more than 34 years. Lives in West Virginia. Yes, the dog in the photograph is his.
Video Interviews
WSAZ Winter’s Ghosts Book Launch
America250 Display Video
Teaching at home this year?
Pharos Terminal opens November 2026 for grades 7–12. Apply for the beta, or start your student on Reality Writes!
