Poet(s) currently taking questions: None.

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Recent Media

Luke Johnson, Smartish Pace & 32 Poems reading

Luke Johnson reading for Smartish Pace & 32 Poems at Topics Cafe, Chicago, March 1, 2012.

Recent Interview

Interview with Patrick Ryan Frank

Originally from Michigan, Patrick Ryan Frank has his master’s degree in poetry from Boston University and studied theater and creative writing as an undergraduate at Northwestern. Since then, he has received fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and the Massachusetts Arts Council, and now holds a James A. Michener Fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin. In August of 2010, How the Losers Love What’s Lost won the Four Way Books Intro prize judged by Alan Shapiro. He was interviewed over email by Julia Leverone of Smartish Pace in October, 2010.JL: Could you give an idea as to your background, and especially what your influences are?PRF: I grew up in rural Michigan, on what had once been a farm but is now just a wide swath of weeds and derelict barns. I hated it at the time, and I’ve lived in big cities ever since (with the exception of a couple of stints at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown). While I always wanted to be an urban—and urbane—poet, I can’t quite pull myself completely from the fields.My influences are pretty varied, sometimes embarrassingly so. I bought a shiny ... [ read more ]

Upcoming Events

Issue 20 Readings!

9/1/2013 (7:00pm) -- (8:00pm)

Baltimore, New York, Raleigh, Austin, Virgin Islands

We will have Smartish Pace Issue 20 readings in Baltimore (TBA), New York City (KGB Bar), Raleigh (Contemporary Art Museum), Austin (TBA) and Virgin Islands (TBA).

Dates to be announced here throughout the year.

Recent Review

The Blue Dress

The dilemma with this book is that every time I start to read it, I find myself putting it down to write — my own memories surfacing, requiring the light of paper to see. C.K. Williams says of memory, in his poem “Lessons” from The Singing: How even know in truth how muchof mind should be memory, no lesswhat portion of self should be othersrather than self? Are our own truths, our ... [ read more ]