Dave Smith, Elliot Coleman Professor of Poetry and Chair of the Department of Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, is the first Lamont Poet in the Library’s Lamont Poetry Program for 2007-2008. Smith read from his poetry in the Assembly Hall on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. The reading, free and open to the public, took place in the Assembly Hall, located on the second floor of the Academy Building on Front Street in Exeter.

Smith primarily teaches in the area of contemporary poetry in the English language. He is the author of numerous books of poetry, including his most recent work, Little Boats, Unsalvaged (Louisiana State University Press, 2005) and his 14th collection of poetry, The Wick of Memory, New and Selected Poems, 1970-2000 (Louisiana State University Press, 2000).

Smith has also published works of criticism, fiction and collections of short stories and essays, including Hunting Men: A Life in the Life of Poetry (Louisiana State University Press, 2006).

Smith, who is editor of the Southern Messenger Signature Poets Series of Louisiana State University, was for many years co-editor of The Southern Review. He edited The Essential Poe (Ecco, 1991), The William Morrow Anthology of Younger American Poets (William Morrow and Co., 1985), and The Pure Clear Word: Essays on the Poetry of James Wright (University of Illinois Press, 1981). Smith has won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in Poetry, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Lyndhurst Fellowship, as well as the Virginia Prize in Poetry and an Award in Poetry from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He is an elected member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers and was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.

Smith has previously taught at the University of Utah; the State University of New York at Binghamton; the Summer Creative Writing Program at Bennington College in Vermont; the University of Florida; Virginia Commonwealth University; and Louisiana State University.

The Lamont Poetry Series, endowed in 1982 by Corliss Lamont, Class of 1920, continues to bring remarkable poets to Exeter and remains a testimony to Mr. Lamont, who died in 1995.

For further information, please contact Academy Librarian Jacquelyn Thomas at (603) 777-3328.

Interested in learning more?

Read Smith's biographical information on the Johns Hopkins University website... 

See the Louisiana State Press entry on Dave Smith...