Ron Smith (American poet)
Ron Smith is an American poet and the first writer-in-residence at St. Christopher's School in Richmond, Virginia.
He is the author of Running Again in Hollywood Cemetery, Moon Road, and Its Ghostly Workshop. In 2005, he was selected, along with Elizabeth Seydel Morgan, as an inaugural winner of the Carole Weinstein Poetry Prize, "which is awarded each year to a poet with strong connections to the Commonwealth of Virginia."[1] He now serves as a curator for the prize along with Morgan, David Wojahn, and Don Selby.[2]
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.[2]
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.[2]
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.[2]
From 2014 to 2016, he was Poet Laureate of Virginia.[3]
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 Meran, Italy.[2]
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.[2]
Ron Smith is the current Writer in Residence [4] at St. Christopher's School.[5]
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;[6] published by University Presses of Florida; ISBN 978-0-8130-0881-3
- 2007: Moon Road: Poems 1986-2005, Louisiana State University Press, 72 pp, ISBN 978-0-8071-3271-5
- 2013: Its Ghostly Workshop, Louisiana State University Press, ISBN 978-0-8071-5033-7
Other 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:
- Poet Laureate of Virginia, 2014–16
- Theodore Roethke Poetry Prize from the Poetry Northwest[6]
- Guy Owen Poetry Prize[2]
- Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellowship[2]
Notes
- ↑ "Home". Weinstein Poetry Prize. Carole Weinstein. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Curators". Weinstein Poetry Prize. Carole Weinstein. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
- ↑ "Governor McAuliffe Announces Administration Appointments". Governor of Virginia. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
- ↑ https://www.stchristophers.com/arts/writerinresidence
- ↑ http://www.stchristophers.com
- 1 2 "Ron Smith". Blackbird. Retrieved December 26, 2007.
External links
- Poem: "Via Appia"
- Poems: "Striking Out My Son in the Father-Son Game", "Leaving Forever", "Objectivity", "In the Old City"
- Essay-review in The George Review, Winter 2004, reprinted in Poetry Daily: Old New Critics
- Poems: "Coaching Pitchers" and "Double"
- Poem: "Edward Teller's Leg"
- Poem: "Campidoglio"
- Poem in Plume, "κάθαρσης"
- Essay-review from The Georgia Review, "Old New Critics"
- Two poems set in the city of Rome
- Poem in Ascent, set in New Orleans
- Review of Ron Smith's Its Ghostly Workshop
- Its Ghostly Workshop