Ron Smith (American poet)
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Ron Smith is an award-winning American poet and the first writer-in-residence at the St. Christopher's School in Richmond, Virginia.
He is the author of Running Again in Hollywood Cemetery and Moon Road. Together with Elizabeth Seydel Morgan, he was one of the first two winners of the Carole Weinstein Poetry Prize, given to poets associated with central Virginia. He is now one of the "curators" of the prize.[1]
Smith's poems have appeared in periodicals, including The Nation, Kenyon Review, New England Review, and in anthologies from Wesleyan University Press, Time-Life Books, University of Virginia Press, University of Georgia Press, and University of Illinois Press.[1]
His essay-reviews have appeared in The Kenyon Review and other magazines and reference works, most recently in The Georgia Review, Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts, and H-Arete. He is the regular poetry reviewer for The Richmond Times-Dispatch.[1]
He is a former president of the Poetry Society of Virginia. Smith is a trustee for the Edgar Allan Poe Museum and sits on the board of directors for James River Writers.[1]
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[edit] Life
Born in Savannah, Georgia, Smith moved to Richmond, Virginia, to play college football (some of his poems are about sports). He holds degrees (B.A., M.A., M.H., M.F.A.) from the University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University in philosophy, English, general humanities, and creative writing. He has studied creative writing at Bennington College in Vermont, British drama at Worcester College, Oxford University, and Renaissance and modern culture and literature at the Ezra Pound Center for Literature in Merano, Italy.[1]
He has taught creative writing (poetry, fiction, drama), twentieth century American poetry, and the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe at Mary Washington College, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the University of Richmond.[1]
[edit] Works
[edit] Poetry books
- 1988: ''Running Again in Hollywood Cemetery, called "a close second" by Margaret Atwood, judge for the National Poetry Series Open Competition; also a runner-up for the Samuel French Morse Prize; title poem awarded Southern Poetry Review's Guy Owen Award by judge Linda Pastanlater[2]; published by University Presses of Florida; ISBN-10 0813008816, ISBN-13 978-0813008813
- 2007: Moon Road: Poems 1986-2005, Louisiana State University Press, 72 pp, ISBN-10 0807132713, ISBN 13 978-0807132715
[edit] Other poetry
His 18-poem sequence "To Ithaca" appeared in the Summer 2002 issue of The Georgia Review.
[edit] Awards and recognitions
His awards and honors include:
- Theodore Roethke Poetry Prize from the Poetry Northwest[2]
- Guy Owen Poetry Prize[1]
- Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellowship[1]
[edit] External links
- Poem: "Repairs"
- Poem: "Via Appia"
- Poems: "Striking Out My Son in the Father-Son Game", "Leaving Forever", "Objectivity", "In the Old City"
- "Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts"
