Patricia Smith is the author of eight books of poetry, including Incendiary Art; Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah, winner of the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets; Blood Dazzler, a National Book Award finalist; and Gotta Go, Gotta Flow, with photographer Michael Abramson. Her other books include Teahouse of the Almighty, Close to Death, Big Towns Big Talk, Life According to Motown; the children’s book Janna and the Kings and the history Africans in America. Her work has appeared in Poetry, The Paris Review, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Tin House and in Best American Poetry, Best American Essays and Best American Mystery Stories. She is a Guggenheim fellow, a National Endowment for the Arts grant recipient, and a two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize. Patricia is a professor at the College of Staten Island and in the MFA program at Sierra Nevada College.
