- Ron Smith (American poet)
Sir Ron Smith is an award-winning American poet and the first writer-in-residence at the
St. Christopher's School inRichmond, 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 centralVirginia . He is now one of the "curators" of the prize. [http://home.comcast.net/~caroleweinstein/curators.html] Web page titled "Curators" at the Carol Weinstein Poetry Prize Web site, retrievedDecember 26 ,2007 ]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.His essay-reviews have appeared in The Kenyon Review and other magazines and reference works, most recently in "
The Georgia Review ", "", and "H-Arete". He is the regular poetry reviewer for "The Richmond Times-Dispatch ".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.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 theUniversity of Richmond andVirginia Commonwealth University in philosophy, English, general humanities, and creative writing. He has studied creative writing atBennington College in Vermont, British drama atWorcester College ,Oxford University , and Renaissance and modern culture and literature at the Ezra Pound Center for Literature inMerano ,Italy .He has taught creative writing (poetry, fiction, drama), twentieth century American poetry, and the life and works of
Edgar Allan Poe atMary Washington College , Virginia Commonwealth University, and the University of Richmond.Works
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; 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 13 978-0807132715Other poetry
His 18-poem sequence "To Ithaca" appeared in the Summer 2002 issue of "The Georgia Review".
Awards and recognitions
His awards and honors include:
* Theodore Roethke Poetry Prize from the "Poetry Northwest" [http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v2n2/features/smith_r_111403/smith_r.htm] Web page titled "Ron Smith", giving biographical information on him, at the "Blackbird" periodical's Web site, retrieved
December 26 ,2007 ]
* Guy Owen Poetry Prize
* Virginia Center for the Creative Arts FellowshipExternal links
* [http://www.poems.com/poem.php?date=13873 Poem: "Repairs"]
* [http://www.cstone.net/~poems/viaapsmi.htm Poem: "Via Appia"]
* [http://www.carolynforonda.com/Archive/poets_spotlight_Nov2007.htm Poems: "Striking Out My Son in the Father-Son Game", "Leaving Forever", "Objectivity", "In the Old City"]
* [http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/ "Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts"]Notes
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