In 2018 R.T. Smith retired from teaching and editing after forty-nine years of mischief. He edited Cold Mountain Review, Southern Humanities Review and, for 23 years, Shenandoah. Smith also served as resident or visiting writer at Auburn University, Appalachian State, VMI, Converse College, Washington and Lee and the National Historical Park at Harper’s Ferry.
Over his career he published 23 books – six collections of stories and 17 of poetry, including Library of Virginia books of the year, Messenger (LSU) and Outlaw Style (Arkansas), and two runners-up. His most recent collection is Summoning Shades (Mercer U. Press), winner of the 2018 Adrian Bond Poetry Prize. Smith has also received writing fellowships and Governor’s Awards for the Arts from both Alabama and Virginia.
His individual poems and stories have appeared in The Atlantic, Poetry, Gettysburg Review, Sewanee Review, Southern Review, Rolling Stone, Esquire, 5 Points, Virginia Quarterly, Missouri Review, The Irish Times and many anthologies and textbooks.
Smith is a Parkinson’s patient and is married to poet and novelist Sarah Kennedy. They live on Timber Ridge in Rockbridge County, Virginia, with their insubordinate bluetick hound Gypsy and three chainsaws.
| Louis Gallo |
| R.T. Smith |
| Doug Ramspeck |
| Scott Hutchison |
| Mark Vogel |
| Richard Nester |
| Tim Poland |
| Casey Clabough |
| Chelsea Adams |
| Donald Secreast |
| Luke Armstrong |
| Rob Neukirch |
| Elliot Dabinsky |