Patricia Smith

Patricia Smith, a proud native of Chicago’s West Side, is the author of five books of poetry, including Blood Dazzler, a 2008 National Book Award finalist chronicling the emotional, physical and psychological toll exacted by Hurricane Katrina; and Teahouse of the Almighty, a National Poetry Series selection, winner of the first-ever Hurston-Wright Legacy Award in Poetry and About.com’s Best Poetry Book of 2006. She also authored the groundbreaking history Africans in America (the companion book to the PBS series) and the children’s book Janna and the Kings, which won Lee & Low Books’ New Voices Award. Her work has appeared in Poetry, The Paris Review, TriQuarterly and many other journals, and has been performed around the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Poets Stage in Stockholm, Rotterdam’s Poetry International, the Aran Islands International Poetry and Prose Festival, the Bahia Festival, the Schomburg Center and on tour in Germany, Austria and Holland. A choreoplay based on Blood Dazzler, co-created by former Urban Bush Women choreographer Paloma McGregor, recently debuted off-Broadway in NYC; Smith has written and starred in three one-woman shows and penned the play “Life According to Motown.” She has been awarded a Lannan Foundation residency, a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship and a Pushcart Prize. She is a Cave Canem faculty member and a four-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam, the most successful poet in the competition’s history. A graduate of the Stonecoast MFA program, she is currently a professor of English and creative writing at the City University of New York / College of Staten Island.

Selected Publications:
POETRY:
Blood Dazzler Coffee House Press, 2008
Teahouse of the Almighty Coffee House Press, 2006
Close to Death Zoland Books, 1993
Big Towns, Big Talk Zoland Books, 1992
Life According to Motown Tia Chucha Press, 1991

CHILDREN'S BOOK:
Janna and the Kings Lee & Low Books, 2003

NON-FICTION:
Africans in America: America's Journey Toward Slavery Harcourt Brace, 1998

Teaching Philosophy:

Here’s who I am as your potential mentor at Stonecoast:

As you may or may not know, I graduated from Stonecoast in the summer of 2008. Since becoming a faculty member the following year, I’ve mentoredstudents in every stage of their MFA pursuit. The varied talent, enthusiasm and motivational levels of the students I worked with help me define exactly what kind of mentor I was going to be. In brief: I’m focused, tough, and determine to transform your writing life.

First, the basics:

--Packets are due on the 15th of every month, and will be returned by the 25th. If this does not fit with your schedule, we can adjust the due date--but I need ten days before they are returned. Packets should be submitted by email, and should be received by noon on the day they are due. My schedule of readings and teaching stints is somewhat chaotic, and it’s imperative that I receive packets on time so that I can plan my itinerary accordingly.

--Unless some other specialized arrangement is made during the residency, packets for first and second-semester students will consist of 10-15 pages of new work and two annotations. In addition, each month you will respond to a writing assignment designed to move you into new and unexplored creative territory.

 This response may be part of the new writing requirement. As the semester progresses, your 15 pages will also begin to include revisions of poems we’ve worked on. Second-semester students can begin to review ideas for their third semester projects.

--Once you have received and reviewed your packet response, we will have a brief email or phone conversation to clear up questions and discuss the contents of the next packet.

--If you are entering your third semester, we will work together to craft a creative and innovative project. Fourth semester students will hone and stamp a definitive creative signature on their thesis.

And:

Writers are singular and stubborn creatures, slaves to both ritual and revolution. It is important that you decide if you want to fly or if you want the calm clockwork of the basics. Once that determination is made, you and I can do amazing things.

Since I believe that we are all primarily storytellers, the strength and consistency of narrative is important to me. I revel in story. I have studied meter and form, and consider myself proficient in their practice, but I’ve always been a sucker for drama. So let’s talk about the stories you want to tell, and let’s find the best way to tell them. I love looking for unexpected entry points into poems that have been written thousands of times. There are always alternatives to the ordinary, and that’s what we’ll explore. We will also talk about the poems you can’t write, either because of technical issues or prohibitive emotional content.

I’m particularly interested in persona poems, poetic collaboration, poetry asmemoir, Prosody 101, poems revolving around a particular theme, theintersections of poetry and prose, ekphrastic work, poetry/music, adolescent poetry, the dramatic monologue, spoken word, and any melding of good story/good form. Sestinas, sonnets, villanelles, pantoums, fascinate me. I expect you to get me excited about whatever you’re interested in.

You should know: I am a voracious line editor who pays close attention to revision for impact and specificity. Your poems and annotations will receive an extraordinary close read with an eye toward basic proficiency, lyricism andinnovation. If you think my obsession with your development might make you uncomfortable, I’m probably not the mentor for you.