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Patricia Smith

PATRICIA SMITH, lauded by critics as “a testament to the power of words to change lives,” is the author of four acclaimed poetry volumes—“Teahouse of the Almighty” (a 2005 National Poetry Series selection), “Close to Death,” “Life According to Motown” and “Big Towns, Big Talk.” Her poetry has been published in The Paris Review, TriQuarterly, and other literary journals/anthologies, and performed around the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Poets Stage in Stockholm, Rotterdam’s Poetry International Festival, the Aran Islands International Poetry and Prose Festival, the Bahia Festival, the Schomburg Center, the Sorbonne in Paris and on tour in Germany, Austria and Holland.

A four-time individual champion on the National Poetry Slam, Smith has also been a featured poet on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and has performed three one-woman plays, one produced by Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott.

In addition to her poetic works, Smith is also the author of “Africans in America,” a companion volume to the groundbreaking PBS documentary; Publishers Weekly called the book “a monumental research effort wed with fine writing…ultimately shaped by Smith’s beautiful narrative,” and Michelle Cliff of the San Jose Mercury News said, “With its vivid language and historical integrity, ‘Africans in America’ is a major contribution to this country’s written history.” Smith also penned the children’s book “Janna and the Kings,” which won Lee & Low Books’ New Voices Award.

Smith is currently at work on “Fixed on a Furious Star,” a biography of Harriet Tubman to be published by Crown; also upcoming is a new poetry volume, “34,” centered around the human devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, and a young adult novel, “The Journey of Willie J.”