Overview

A compassionate memoir by a writer, professor, and family man from the industrial Midwest. Smith treat class, education, family, place, and the life of the spirit in this stirring book.

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9780933087750

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Reviews

'The Company of Widows, ' [included in Milldust and Roses] one of the strongest pieces, describes a visit 'home' to his mother. It is homage to his parents, to the legacy of work 'as fabric of life, ' and to working-class struggle that 'toughens you or it breaks your heart.' -Janet Zandy Such a sweet, kind, modest, touching, an unassuming book...It is this simple pride in being 'common' that most touches me....I envy Smith this rooted, honest, and unabashedly loving portrait of his native land. -David Budbill This beautiful memoir of that part of the steel-hearted Midwest, by a writer who understands the poetry and poverty of the working-class poor, is something to be put in the hands of anyone unfamiliar with the history of steel towns, America's blue collar culture, and how it shaped lives and souls. -Norbert Blei

This is a remarkable memoir, two memoirs really. One chronicles Larry Smith's odyssey from son of a mill town worker to accomplished teacher, writer, publisher. We see a young man take his first uncertain steps from a way of life that had defined his family for generations. As he and wife Ann move from their beloved Ohio Valley, we also see the values of hard work, honesty to self, acceptance of others, and others instilled from his parents impelling his life forward from college graduate to high school teacher to college professor. Throughout, love of family remains at the center of his life. <p/>The other memoir is his creative odyssey. Shared the evolution of his creative self as reflected in selections from his poetry, fiction, and biography. It brings him-and us-to a precipice of understanding that is deep and profound, a holistic self grounded in the world of nature and others. --Kurt Landefeld, author of Jack's Memoir

This is a remarkable memoir, two memoirs really. One chronicles Larry Smith's odyssey from son of a mill town worker to accomplished teacher, writer, publisher. We see a young man take his first uncertain steps from a way of life that had defined his family for generations. As he and wife Ann move from their beloved Ohio Valley, we also see the values of hard work, honesty to self, acceptance of others, and others instilled from his parents impelling his life forward from college graduate to high school teacher to college professor. Throughout, love of family remains at the center of his life. The other memoir is his creative odyssey. Shared the evolution of his creative self as reflected in selections from his poetry, fiction, and biography. It brings him-and us-to a precipice of understanding that is deep and profound, a holistic self grounded in the world of nature and others. --Kurt Landefeld, author of Jack's Memoir

Author Information

Larry Smith is a native Midwesterner, born and raised in a working-class family in the industrial Ohio River Valley. In 1965 he graduated from Muskingum College in Ohio and at 22 married a hometown girl, Ann Zaben. He worked in the steel mills that summer before moving to Euclid, Ohio where he taught high school and Ann began working as a nurse. He earned degrees at Kent State University (M.A. and Ph.D), and was there when the riots and shootings of students occurred. In 1970-1971 he and Ann and their daughter Laura moved to Huron, Ohio, where he began teaching at Firelands College of Bowling Green State University. Son Brian (1970) and daughter Suzanne (1975) were born in Huron. In 1980 he was a Fulbright lecturer in American Literature in Sicily. He is the author of eight books of poetry, a book of memoirs, six books of fiction, two literary biographies of authors Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Kenneth Patchen, and two books of translations from the Chinese with co-translator Mei Hui Huang. His photo history of his hometown Mingo Junction appeared recently in the Images of America Series. Two of his film scripts on authors James Wright and Kenneth Patchen have been made into films with Tom Koba and shown on PBS. As a professor of English and humanities at Firelands College (1970-2010) he has taught writing and literature and served as director of the Firelands Writing Center, a cooperative of writers. As director of the literary publisher, Bottom Dog Press, Inc., he has edited over 65 books and carried into publication some 200 titles of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. In addition, Smith has been a reviewer for American Book Review, Parabola, Small Press Review, Choice, The San Francisco Review of Books, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohioana Quarterly, Heartlands, and the New York Journal of Books. He is a requested presenter at various writers� conferences in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. His poetry has been featured on American Public Media�s Writer�s Almanac with Garrison Keillor. His recent publications include the novel The Free Farm (2013), Each Moment All: Meditations as Poems (2012) and Lake Winds: Poems (2014). He enjoys playing guitar and doing meditation at the Converging Paths Meditation Center in Sandusky, Ohio.

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