Smith, Patricia 1955-

PERSONAL:

Born 1955, in Chicago, IL; married Michael Brown (divorced). Education: Attended Southern Illinois University and Northwestern University.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—Alison Granucci, Blue Flower Arts, 373 Mabbettsville Rd., Millbrook, NY 12545. E-mail—patricia@wordwoman.ws.

CAREER:

Writer, journalist, poet, educator, playwright, columnist, vocalist, and performer. Chicago Daily News, Chicago, IL, started as typist, became music and entertainment reviewer; Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago, entertainment writer, 1978-90; Boston Globe, Boston, MA, began as entertainment critic, became regular columnist and reporter, 1990-98. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Bruce McEver chair in writing; Cave Canem (a writers' center), member of faculty. Presenter of workshops and residencies in writing, poetry, and performance. Frequent reader and performer of her poetry at venues throughout the world. Appeared in Home Box Office (HBO) series "Def Poetry Jam" and in feature film Slamnation.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Carl Sandburg Literary Award, for Big Towns, Big Talk; Pulitzer Prize finalist, 1998; National Poetry Series prize, 2005, Paterson Poetry Prize, 2007, both for Teahouse of the Almighty; inducted into International Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent, 2006. Pushcart Prize, for "The Way Pilots Walk" (poem). Four-time individual champion, National Poetry Slam. Recipient of awards from Women in Communications, Sigma Delta Chi, and United Press International.

WRITINGS:

Life according to Motown, Tia Chucha Press (Chicago, IL), 1991.

Big Towns, Big Talk, Zoland Books (Cambridge, MA), 1992.

Close to Death, Zoland Books (Cambridge, MA), 1993.

Africans in America: America's Journey through Slavery, Harcourt Brace (New York, NY), 1998.

Janna and the Kings, illustrated by Aaron Boyd, Lee & Low Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Teahouse of the Almighty (poems), Coffee House Press (Minneapolis, MN), 2006.

Author and performer in two one-woman plays and a one-woman show, Professional Suicide. Author of weekly metro column for the Boston Globe, 1994-98. Contributor to anthologies, including Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry, 1994; Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, 1995; Bum Rush the Page, 2003; Gathering Ground: The Spoken Word Revolution; The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry; Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of New Fusion Poetry; and Pushcart Prize XXXII: Best of the Small Presses. Contributor to periodicals and journals, including Paris Review, Chautauqua Literary Journal, and TriQuarterly.

SIDELIGHTS:

Patricia Smith is a journalist, poet, playwright, and performer. A self-taught journalist who learned most aspects of the trade on the job, she started as a typist at the Chicago Daily News and became, some twenty years later, the first African American woman to write a regular weekly metro column for the Boston Globe, noted a biographer in Notable Black American Women. In 1998 Smith became involved in a controversy that resulted in the loss of her job as a columnist for the Globe. That summer, she was asked by her editor to identify and substantiate several of the people she had quoted and used as sources in her columns. When she could not, she was dismissed from the Globe. "Smith was forced to admit that she had peopled some of her columns with characters that may have been composites of many folks she had encountered in her journalistic research but characters that in the end were entirely of her own fabrication," reported the Notable Black American Women biographer. Smith explained at the time that she had not intended to deceive her readers but rather sought to add additional impact to her work through the made-up characters and quotes. Despite her best intentions, Smith lost her job.

Since then, however, Smith has made considerable progress in repairing her professional reputation. She has gained recognition as a poet and a performer in poetry slam competitions, becoming a four-time champion of the National Poetry Slam. Her works have appeared in notable poetry journals and anthologies, and she has won awards such as the prestigious Pushcart Prize. She has read her poetry at gatherings and festivals throughout the world and has performed her work at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall. Her poems have been adapted as one-woman plays, she has recorded her works on compact disc (CD) and audio, has worked as a musician and vocalist, and has inaugurated another career as a voice-over artist. She is also a popular and sought-after instructor of creative writing, poetry, and performance. Though her reputation was damaged at one time, Smith's dedication and talent have returned her to a notable place in arts and letters.

Teahouse of the Almighty is a collection of Smith's free-verse poetry, fashioned after the slam performance poetry that occupies much of her writing life. Generating a "stunning mix of sound and sense, the best poems become a metaphor for the power of poetry," commented Diane Scharper in Library Journal. The poems in the collection address topics such as the role of poetry in everyday life, feminist thought, religious observance, love and family, violence, and the persistent presence of newspapers and journalism in Smith's worldview. Each poem in the book "conceptualizes amorphous instants into heavy, tangible feeling," observed an Internet Bookwatch reviewer. A Publishers Weekly critic called Smith "that rarest of creatures, a charismatic slam and performance poet whose artistry truly survives on the printed page."

Smith is also the author of works for children, including Janna and the Kings. In this book, young Janna and her grandfather have a much-loved Saturday routine in which they take a walk through their neighborhood and stop at the local barber shop. While strolling the streets, Janna feels as though she is walking through a kingdom with its king, and she is the princess. When she and her adored grandfather stop at the barber shop, the other men there, kings in their own right, greet her warmly and treat her like a cherished friend. When her grandfather dies, Janna grieves terribly and misses him greatly. She is afraid to walk through the neighborhood like they used to do, fearing that it will not be the same. Eventually, however, she gathers her courage and takes the walk, stopping by the old familiar barber shop. There, her old friends are happy to see her, and she is welcomed back as an old friend. She feels her grandfather's deep love and soothing presence, and realizes that even though he is gone, he will always be with her in her memory. Smith "affectingly captures the strong bond between girl and grandfather, and the rituals that unite them," commented a Publishers Weekly reviewer.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Notable Black American Women, Volume 3, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 2002.

PERIODICALS

American Journalism Review, September, 1998, Sinéad O'Brien, "Secrets and Lies."

Black Issues Book Review, March-April, 2007, Lauri A. Conner, review of Teahouse of the Almighty, p. 18.

Booklist, October 1, 1992, Pat Monaghan, review of Big Towns, Big Talk, p. 231; November 15, 2003, Gillian Engberg, review of Janna and the Kings, p. 604.

Broadcasting & Cable, May 17, 1999, review of Africans in America: America's Journey through Slavery, p. 16.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, May, 1993, M. Gillan, review of Big Towns, Big Talk, p. 1468.

Christian Science Monitor, October 15, 1998, Neal Rosendorf, review of Africans in America, p. 7.

Entertainment Weekly, September 29, 2006, Hannah Tucker, review of Teahouse of the Almighty, p. 89.

Internet Bookwatch, November, 2006, review of Teahouse of the Almighty.

Journal of American History, December, 1999, Herbert Aptheker, review of Africans in America, p. 1412.

Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2003, review of Janna and the Kings, p. 1183.

Library Journal, November 1, 1992, Lenard D. Moore, review of Big Towns, Big Talk, p. 91; July 1, 2006, Diane Scharper, review of Teahouse of the Almighty, p. 83.

Parnassus: Poetry in Review, January 1, 1998, review of Big Towns, Big Talk, p. 356; January 1, 1998, review of Close to Death, p. 356; January 1, 1998, review of Life according to Motown, p. 356; March 22, 1998, Eric Murphy Selinger, review of Big Towns, Big Talk, p. 356; March 22, 1998, Eric Murphy Selinger, review of Life According to Motown, p. 356.

Publishers Weekly, January 18, 1991, Penny Kaganoff, review of Life according to Motown, p. 54; September 21, 1998, review of Africans in America, p. 62; September 29, 2003, review of Janna and the Kings, p. 65; June 26, 2006, review of Teahouse of the Almighty, p. 33.

Reference & Research Book News, December, 1992, review of Big Towns, Big Talk, p. 34.

School Library Journal, December, 2000, Susie Husted, review of Africans in America, p. 67; November, 2003, Tracy Bell, review of Janna and the Kings, p. 116.

Tribune Books, (Chicago, IL) February 1, 2004, Mary Harris Russell, review of Janna and the Kings, p. 5.

Wall Street Journal, October 19, 1998, Barbara D. Phillips, review of Africans in America, p. 24.

World Literature Today, May-June, 2007, Andrea E. Shaw, review of Teahouse of the Almighty, p. 76.

ONLINE

CNN.com,http://www.cnn.com/ (June 19, 1998), "Boston Globe Columnist Resigns, Accused of Fabrications."

Modern American Poetry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/ (August 5, 2007), Kurt Heintz, biography of Patricia Smith.

Patricia Smith Home Page,http://www.wordwoman.ws (August 5, 2007).

Patricia Smith MySpace page,http://www.myspace.com/pswordwoman (August 5, 2007).

Poets.org,http://www.poets.org/ (August 5, 2007), biography of Patricia Smith.