Patricia Smith
Internationally renowned as a performance poet, Patricia Smith is four-time national individual champion of the notorious and wildly popular poetry slam, an energized competition where poets are judged on the content and performance of their work. She is also regarded as one of the few performance poets whose work translates effortlessly to the page. Indeed, the Small Press Review declares, "Smith writes the way Tina Turner sings." Smiths most recent collection, Teahouse of the Almighty, was chosen by Ed Sanders for the 2005 National Poetry Series, and was published by Coffee House Press in 2006. Smith's three previous books of poetry are, Close to Death (Zoland Books), Big Towns, Big Talk (Zoland Books), and Life According to Motown (Tia Chucha). In reviewing Close to Death for Library Journal, Louis McKee said, "souls rage from the hellfire of the streets, and Smith effectively captures the language and urgency, the rhythms and fury."