Literary Editor, Poet and Fiction Writer to Give Public Reading at Converse
On Tuesday, January 15, poet, fiction writer and literary editor R.T. Smith will give a free reading of his new work at 8 p.m. in the Barnet Room of the Montgomery Student Center on the campus of Converse College.
Smith is serving as the 2008 Sara Lura Mathews Self Writer-in-Residence at Converse for which he teaches Advanced Tutorial in Poetry throughout January Term.
For more information, call (864) 596-9000 or send an E-mail.
“In addition to having a renowned career as an award-winning poet and fiction writer, R.T. has distinguished himself as on of the best literary editors of our generation,” said Rick Mulkey, director of Converse’s Creative Writing Program and associate professor of English. “He brings the level of expertise as writer and teacher that we always try to present to our students.”
For more than a decade, Smith has been Editor-in-Chief at “Shenandoah,” one of the nation’s most distinguished and influential literary journals. He is the author of 12 volumes of poetry, including Messenger, Trespasser and Brightwood as well as a highly praised recent collection of short stories entitled Uke Rivers Delivers (LSU Press).
His fiction has appeared in “The Pushcart Prize,” “Best American Short Stories,” “New Stories from the South” (2002, 2004 & 2006) and “Best American Mystery Stories,” as well as “Missouri Review,” “Southern Review,” “Zoetrope and Quarterly West.”
His poems have appeared in “The Pushcart Prize” (2003 & 2006), “Atlantic Monthly”, “Georgia Review” and “Gettysburg Review.”
Smith has received the Cohen Prize from “Ploughshares,” the Guy Owen Prize from “Southern Humanities Review” and the Richard Hugo Prize from “Poetry Northwest.” Messenger was named Poetry Book of the Year by the Library of Virginia and in 2004 Li-Young Lee chose The Hollow Log Lounge as winner of the Maurice English Prize.