SMITH, Danyel 1965?-

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1965, in Oakland, CA.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Brooklyn, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Crown Publishing Group, 299 Park Ave, New York, NY 10171-0002. E-mail—me@danyelsmilth.com.

CAREER:

Novelist, music critic, and editor. Time, Inc., New York, NY, former editor-at-large; Vibe (magazine), New York, NY, editor-in-chief. beginning 1997; New School University, New York, NY, member of adjunct faculty.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Residency award, Millay Colony for the Arts, 2003.

WRITINGS:

More like Wrestling, Crown (New York, NY), 2003.

Contributor of music reviews to periodicals, including Rolling Stone, Cosmopolitan, New York Times, San Francisco Guardian, Village Voice, and Spin.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

A second novel.

SIDELIGHTS:

Music journalist Danyel Smith's first novel, More like Wrestling, focuses on two sisters growing up in Oakland, California, during the 1980s. High school freshman Paige and her younger sister Pinch have moved away from their mother and their mother's abusive boyfriend, and are determined to make it on their own. Although the responsibility of work and school and being the oldest weighs heavily on Paige, she gains a few close friends, while Pinch remains more withdrawn and cautious about the changing face of their Oakland neighborhood. Taking place over several years and narrated in turn by each of the sisters, the novel follows Paige and Pinch as they learn to rely on each other's strengths and deal with their own weaknesses. Ultimately the drugs and violence that injure their friends and threaten their urban landscape force each of the young women to make the choice whether to succumb to their surroundings or take a risk and strike out on their own someplace new.

Writing in Booklist, Vanessa Bush praised More like Wrestling, noting that "Smith's poetic writing captures the rhythm and cadence" of the novel's urban setting. Although some critics faulted the novel for its sentimentality, a Publishers Weekly contributor praised it as a "rich, idiosyncratic, impressionistic first novel" of two young women coming of age. In an interview posted on the Sistah Circle Book Club Web site, Smith stated the message she hoped the novel would impart to readers: "That relationships between women, especially mothers and daughters, are difficult sometimes but ultimately rewarding. That love relationships between men and women are about that 'zing', but are mostly about dealing with someone, building on the partnership so it stays strong when the going is truly rough. Also that Oakland, California, is a wonderful place to grow up. Even when it's not."

In addition to fiction, Smith contributes music reviews to a number of newspapers and magazines, and also teaches a course at New York City's New School University. In the late 1990s she was appointed editor-in-chief of Vibe, a top urban-culture magazine founded by musician Quincy Jones in 1992. Raised in California like her fictional protagonists, she now makes her home in Brooklyn, New York.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Black Issues Book Review, March-April, 2003, Mondella S. Jones, review of More like Wrestling, p. 42.

Booklist, November 15, 2002, Vanessa Bush, review of More like Wrestling, p. 578.

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2002, review of More like Wrestling, p. 1501.

Library Journal, January, 2003, David A. Berona, review of More like Wrestling, p. 160.

Ms., July-August, 1998, Amy Aronson, interview with Smith, pp. 86-88.

Publishers Weekly, November 11, 2002, review of More like Wrestling, p. 40.

ONLINE

Morelikewrestling.com,http://www.morelikewrestling.com (January 29, 2003).

Sisah Circle Book Club Web site,http://www.thesistahcircle.com/ (January 29, 2003), interview with Smith.*