Biography
My books include my fourth poetry collection The Killing Tree, published in 2016 by Finishing Line Press, and three previous collections Settling for Beauty (Cherry Grove Collections, www.cherry-grove.com/smith.html), my first collection, The Hypothetical Landscape (Quarterly Review of Literature Poetry Series), and the edited anthology Northern Music: Poems About and Inspired by Glenn Gould (John Gordon Burke, Publisher). My children’s book The Best Mariachi in the World was published by Raven Tree Press (www.raventreepress.com) in 2008. My poems have received three Pushcart nominations, and my essays and reviews have appeared in American Book Review, Grist and Pleiades. My literary and crime fiction has appeared in a variety of publications, including Orchid and Thug Lit (www.thuglit.com) and will appear in the forthcoming anthology Hardcore Hardboiled. My poems have been anthologized in the collections In a Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare (University of Iowa Press), Poetic Voices without Borders (Gival Press), and Illuminations: Expressions of the Personal Spiritual Experience (Ten Speed Press). Among widely circulating publications, my poems "Aubade" and "A Game" appeared in The Bark, and my op-ed "Pop Viagra and Save a Rhino" appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
I am currently seeking publishers for one children's picture book, two short fiction collections and three poetry collections.
Educated at American University in Washington, DC, the University of Chicago, the University of Houston Creative Writing Program and Carleton University in Ontario, I have received scholarships to attend the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Bucknell University Seminar for Younger Poets and the West Chester University Poetry Conference. I have also additionally received Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
I live with my wife and rescue animals in Washington, DC, and I am available for lectures, readings and signings.