BOOKS | DIGITAL | MEDIA
Welcome to Great Dog Literary
CRYSTAL SIMONE SMITH
ABOUT
WHAT'S NEW
ABOUT
Crystal Simone Smith is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing who received a Duke University Fellowship in 2020 to research and compose African American haiku. She is the Founder and Managing Editor of Backbone Press, which publishes emerging and established poets of color. Crystal received her MFA in Creative Writing fro
Crystal Simone Smith is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing who received a Duke University Fellowship in 2020 to research and compose African American haiku. She is the Founder and Managing Editor of Backbone Press, which publishes emerging and established poets of color. Crystal received her MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Photo Credit:
James G. Northup Photography
WORK
WHAT'S NEW
ABOUT
Crystal is a poet and the author of three chapbooks of poetry, Down to Earth (Longleaf Press, 2021), Running Music (Longleaf Press, 2014), and Routes Home (Finishing Line Press, 2013).
Her poem “Slave Museum” won 1st place in the NCPS Bloodroot Haiku Award in 2019. She co-authored One Window’s Light: A Collection of Haiku (Unicorn Press, 2
Crystal is a poet and the author of three chapbooks of poetry, Down to Earth (Longleaf Press, 2021), Running Music (Longleaf Press, 2014), and Routes Home (Finishing Line Press, 2013).
Her poem “Slave Museum” won 1st place in the NCPS Bloodroot Haiku Award in 2019. She co-authored One Window’s Light: A Collection of Haiku (Unicorn Press, 2017), which was awarded the 1st Place Merit Book Award for best haiku anthology by the Haiku Society of America. Her poems have been named either Finalist or Honorable Mention in the 2012 Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize, the 2017 Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize, and the 2018 James Applewhite Poetry Award.
WHAT'S NEW
WHAT'S NEW
WHAT'S NEW
Her forthcoming YA book of blackout poetry, Dark Testament, was written during the days and weeks of demonstrations that followed the death of George Floyd. While watching protestors amass for days calling for the arrest of the officers, Crystal was reading the experimental novel Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders. As she read, cert
Her forthcoming YA book of blackout poetry, Dark Testament, was written during the days and weeks of demonstrations that followed the death of George Floyd. While watching protestors amass for days calling for the arrest of the officers, Crystal was reading the experimental novel Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders. As she read, certain words and phrases began to loom in the text. From the pages of Saunders’ experimental novel rose Dark Testament—a gathering of mournful, gripping voices that unmask a dialogue of the tragic truths underlying the Black Lives Matter movement. Three of the poems from Dark Testament are featured in the current issue of Poetry magazine and can be viewed here. Crystal Simone Smith’s Dark Testament was recently sold at auction and is slated for publication in Fall 2022.