Mingo Town and Memories

Author Jim Daniels on Smith's memoir writing:

"Larry Smith writes of a life full of personal challenges, a life full of consistent engagement with the larger world, and a life full of commitment to making it a better place--as a husband, father, writer, and editor. Smith has worn a lot of hats, and he's worn them well. His story here of his home town has the emotional resonance of all of his writing making the point that working-class lives like his in communities like his are important to our culture and history. They matter."

Larry Smith is a native of the industrial Ohio River Valley having grown up in Mingo Junction, Ohio. He is the author of eight previous books of poetry, two books of memoirs, five books of fiction, two literary biographies of authors Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Kenneth Patchen, and two books of poetry translations from the Chinese. Smith has received fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities and was a Fulbright Lecturer in Italy from 1980 to 1981. His photo history of hometown Mingo Junction,Ohio co-edited with Guy Mason appeared in Arcadia's Images of America Series.