Sound + Noise

"Only occasionally do I read a novel where the characters remain like old friends long after the title and plot have faded away. Curtis Smith creates such characters. Jackie and Tom are burdened with the grief and fate of a superb fictional plot, and yet they are real, I felt as though I lived in their town and watched them long before their paths crossed. Combine this visceral reality with poetic descriptions and a good deal of humor, and you find Curtis Smith's novel, a heart-rending exploration of love and loss, residing somewhere between fiction and life."

- Lisa Carey, author of I Hear The Mermaids Singing

"In BETWEEN SOUND AND NOISE, Curtis Smith identifies, examines, and prods the boundaries we create for ourselves, dramatizing complex human beings struggling against the confines of their pasts in order to create their lives anew. His prose is both exacting and evocative; his vision displays a mind willing to take on the moral ambiguities of our day. The result is a masterly portrait of the way we live now."

- Kirby Gann, author of Our Napoleon In Rags

Available at:  Amazon,  Casperian Books

The Species Crown

"There are elements in these stories we recognize-the vacation story, the murder mystery, Godzilla, geometry-and their brilliance is how Curtis Smith takes these expectations and plays with and against them, twisting, pulling, bringing us along wherever he goes. There are surprises, plot twits, playful language and form, shifts in emotion that catch you off guard. Most importantly, Smith infuses these stories with humor. He surprises you with it; he alleyoops comedic setups, then grabs you and breaks your heart, leaving you wondering what just happened."

- Aaron Burch, Editor, Hobart

Available at:  Amazon,  Press 53

An Unadorned Life

Carl Taylor thinks he's on the "wrong end of a year-long bender" until the week chronicled in An Unadorned Life, when he really hits bottom and learns what it means to look up again. Beneath a blizzard of tough breaks and nasty business, shouldering the sorry baggage of failed love and family history, the hero of Curtis Smith's first novel limps straight into our affections. Thanks to Smith's razor wit, unsparing honesty and non-stop verbal inventiveness, once Carl's soul is laid bare, it looks like something we both wholly recognize and have never seen quite this way before. An Unadorned Life is a boisterous, page-turning, heart-tugging debut by a fresh voice in American fiction.

- Ellen Lesser, author of The Shoplifter's Apprentice and The Blue Streak

Available at:  Amazon

In the Jukebox Light

Available at:  Amazon,  March Street Press

Placing Ourselves Among the Living

Available at:  Amazon,  March Street Press