In
its starred review, Publishers Weekly said, “Smith appears to be
that rarest of creatures, a charismatic slam and performance poet whose
artistry truly survives on the printed page,” and when he selected it
as one of the National Poetry Series winners, poet Edward Sanders described
her work as “searing, honest, well-crafted, and full of the real world
transformed by Patricia Smith’s fine ear for nuance and the shaking of
the soul’s duties.”
We
are privileged to have the four-time National Slam winner Smith residing
next door in Tarrytown and actively involved at the HVWC in many ways,
and we delight in this latest success. She will be joined in a celebratory
reading by fellow poets Radhiyah Ayobami, Tara Betts, Douglas
Goetsch, Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, and Rich Villar.
Teahouse of the Almighty (Coffee House Press, 2006) is Smith’s fourth published poetry collection (following Close to Death; Big Towns, Big Talk; and Life According to Motown.) She has also published the children’s book Jana and the Kings, winner of the New Voices Award, and will see her biography of Harriet Tubman, Fixed on a Furious Star, published in 2007 by Crown. Her work has also appeared in fine literary journals, such as The Paris Review and Triquarterly, and in many anthologies.
photo by Peter Dressel
Free
Admission
Programs and events at The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center are made possible, in part, by grants from the Bydale Foundation, the David G. Taft Foundation, the Orchard Foundation, and the Thendara Foundation; with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts; and by the Basic Program Support Grant of the Westchester Arts Council with funds from Westchester County Government.