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Patricia Smith,
who has been called “a testament to the power
of words to change lives,” is the author of
four books of poetry: Teahouse of the Almighty,
a 2005 National Poetry Series selection (Coffee
House Press, 2006); Close to Death (Zoland
Books); Big Towns, Big Talk (Zoland), which
won the Carl Sandburg Literary Award; and Life
According to Motown (Tia Chucha). Her poems
have been published in many anthologies, including
American Voices (2005), The Spoken
Word Revolution (2003), and Bum Rush the
Page (2003.)
Smith also penned the critically acclaimed history
Africans in America (1998) and the award-winning
children’s book Janna and the Kings
(2003). She is currently working on Fixed
on a Furious Star, a biography of Harriet
Tubman to be published by Crown.
A four-time individual champion on the National
Poetry Slam, Smith has also been a featured poet
on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and has
performed her work around the world. She has written
and performed two one-woman plays, one of which
was produced by Derek Walcott’s Trinidad
Theater Workshop. She is a Cave Canem faculty
member and has served as the Bruce McEver Chair
in Writing at Georgia Tech University.
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