Patricia Smith

Patricia Smith is the author of nine books of poetry, including The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems, winner of the 2025 National Book Award and the NAACP Image Award, and finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize; Unshuttered; Incendiary Art, winner of the Kingsley Tufts Award, the LA Times Book Prize, the NAACP Image Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah, winner of the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets; and Blood Dazzler, a National Book Award finalist. Her work has been published widely, including in Best American Poetry and Best American Essays; her short story “When They Are Done With Us” won the Robert Fish Award from the Mystery Writers of America and was featured in Best American Mystery Stories. She is a professor in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University and a former distinguished professor for the City University of New York. Currently, she is at work on a memoir and novel.