Synopses & Reviews
As both a poet and novelist, Charlie Smith has been hailed as one of the most original voices on the literary scene today. The calls him "prodigiously talented" and Madison Smartt Bell describes him as "not only a spectacular stylist but also a visionary." He is the author of four novels, a book of novellas, and two previous volumes of poetry, and . In images both stark and voluptuous, Charlie Smith writes in of a world that is sometimes brutal, violent, and chaotic. His mythmaking imagination, Stanley Kunitz says, is "the art of the born storyteller...in love with language and places, heart's mysteries, and the invitation of roads." He follows where the imagination leads, whether it be driving a rental car east on Sunset Boulevard or "stepping into Nebraska / as one would step onto a white ferry." In his willingness to stand looking until he sees, he draws us into the urgency and glory of American life.
Synopsis
"...Smith sets beautiful language against a stark human landscape...and a natural world of light, wind, and blossoms....[He] shows us his power without seeming to try--one mark of a major poet." --
About the Author
Charlie Smith is the author of seven previous poetry collections, seven novels, and a book of novellas. He has won the Aga Khan Prize, the Levinson Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. His first book, Red Roads, was chosen for the National Poetry Series and received the Great Lakes New Poets Award. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Paris Review, Harper's, New Republic, Nation, the New York Times, and elsewhere. Three of his novels have been named New York Times Notable Books. He lives in New York City and Key West, Florida.