*Please contact me for signed copies.
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Witness "Curt Smith writes with insight, accuracy and compassion, traits I deem essential to the essay form" "A self-described Postmodern father, ever facing 'new rounds of answerless questions' navigates the deep waters of parenthood and discovers, at turns, a 'sputtering wellspring of bliss.' These beautifully written and thoughtfully argued perceptions of human relationships will seem both familiar and provocative for parents of young children (nowhere else will you find a more precise polemic on Goodnight Moon!)." "Curtis Smith's essays artfully combine poetic prose with keen insight. The result is a collection of personal essays that challenge the reader to re-examine life's moments, both big and small." "The essays collected in Witness brim with intelligence and beauty. Whether writing about a murdered student, the photographs of Diane Arbus, or a three-year-old pirate boy riding a tricycle naked through the house, Curtis Smith delves tenderly and thoughtfully into life's mysteries." Available from Sunnyoutside Press |
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Truth or Something Like It "In Truth or Something Like It, Curtis Smith taps the full range of experience--joy,
grief, humor, despair--with a keen ear for the subtleties of language and a compassionate eye for the complexities
of human nature. His prose is simultaneously robust and impressively precise. This is a surprising, generous writer,
one who cares about his craft, and so will you." "Truth or Something Like It is a thoroughly engrossing novel--rich with unforgettable characters,
vibrant prose, and strength of voice. Curtis Smith is a major talent, and this novel is a work to savor and celebrate." Available from Casperian Books |
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Bad Monkey "With sensibility and wit, Curtis Smith renders a world of charm and chaos.
Smith is a writer of substance and talent, and Bad Monkey is a jungle of delight." "Reading Curtis Smith's prose is like listening to a brilliant electric guitar solo: you not only hear the music,
you fall into it head-first until it alters the beat of your heart, the rhythm of your breathing. Do yourself a favor and put Bad Monkey
on your must-read list." "These stories brim with the energy of crime fiction and the ambition of high literature.
Each piece in this collection achieves sublimity: that ineffable moment when the unanticipatable become the inevitable.
Wonderful alone and, in concert, magnificent." |
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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." "In SOUND + 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." Available from: Amazon, Casperian Books |
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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." |
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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. Available from: Amazon |
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In the Jukebox Light Available from: Amazon, March Street Press |
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Placing Ourselves Among the Living Available from: Amazon, March Street Press |