Charlie Smith

Born on June 27, 1947 in Moultrie, Georgia, Charlie Smith served as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1968 to 1970, then went on to earn a BA from Duke University in 1971 and an MFA from the University of Iowa in 1984.

Smith’s debut collection of poems, Red Roads, was selected for the National Poetry Series and was published by Plume in 1987. It then won the Great Lakes New Poets Award. His second collection, Indistinguishable from the Darkness, was published by W. W. Norton & Company in 1990. Since then, Smith has published numerous other collections, including I Am Your Lifeguard: New and Selected Poems (W. W. Norton, 2026); Word Comix (W. W. Norton, 2009); Women of America (W. W. Norton, 2004); Heroin and Other Poems (W. W. Norton, 2000); Before and After (W. W. Norton, 1995); and The Palms (W. W. Norton, 1993).

Smith has also published five novels: Cheap Ticket to Heaven (Henry Holt, 1996); Chimney Rock (Henry Holt, 1993); The Lives of the Dead (Linden Press/Simon and Schuster, 1990); Shine Hawk (Self-published, 1988); and Canaan (Simon and Schuster, 1984). He also released a collection of novellas titled Crystal River (Linden Press/Simon and Schuster, 1991). 

In 2001, Smith received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in New York City.