DAVE SMITH is the author of Little Boats, Unsalvaged
(Louisiana State University Press, 2005), his 14th
collection of poetry, The Wick of Memory, New and Selected
Poems, 1970-2000 (Louisiana State University Press, 2000),
Onliness (novel, Louisiana State University Press, 1981),
Southern Delights (stories, Croissant & Co., Ltd., 1984),
and two collections of essays: Local Assays: On Contemporary
American Poetry (University of Illinois Press, 1985) and
Hunting Men: A Life in the Life of Poetry (Louisiana State
University Press, 2006.). He was the editor of The Southern
Review from 1990-2002. Smith has won fellowships from the
National Endowment for the Arts in Poetry, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, 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.
Brief Interview with Dave Smith
Since we’re currently in the throes of winter, describe your version of summer in several fragments:
Tennis on open clay courts…The smell of grass freshly cut…The smell of salt water and marshes…Worn t-shirts
Breakfast or brunch, and if you could eat anything without consequence, what would you have?
Coffee, orange juice, eggs over medium, grits, sausage, pancake; ie., the All-Star Special at any Waffle House in the South.
What are your favorite songs to drive to?
"Dancing in the Street" (Martha and the Vandellas); "Up on the Roof" (Four Tops); "Harlem Nocturne;" "Papa's Got a Brand new Bag" (James Brown); anything by The Temptations, The Beatles, The Shirelles, The Four Tops, The Rolling Stones.
Tell us about the last time you remember laughing really hard?
At AWP in Baltimore, dinner with Ron Smith, Terry Hummer, and David Baker.
If you could wake up anywhere in the world tomorrow, where would it be?
In my own bed with the woman I love. More specifically, in Paris. More specifically in Montmarte.