Patricia Smith

Patricia Smith is the author of five books of poetry, including Blood Dazzler, a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award, and Teahouse of the Almighty, a National Poetry Series winner, the Best Poetry Book of 2006 on About.com, and a 2007 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and Paterson Poetry Prize winner. Her work has appeared in many literary journals, including Poetry, The Paris Review, and TriQuarterly, and she has received a Pushcart Prize. She is currently at work on a dance/theater production based on Blood Dazzler and the verse memoir Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah. Smith is a professor of English at the City University of New York/College of Staten Island, and is on the faculty of both Cave Canem and the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine.