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Clint Smith (writer)

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Clint Smith III
Born (1988-08-25) August 25, 1988 (age 36)
New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
EducationDavidson College (BA)
Harvard University (MA, PhD)
WebsiteOfficial website

Clinton "Clint" Smith III (born August 25, 1988) is an American writer, poet and scholar. He is the author of the number one New York Times Best Seller, How the Word Is Passed, which won the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and was named one of the top ten books of 2021 by the New York Times. He is also the author of two poetry collections, Counting Descent, which was published in 2016 and Above Ground, which was published in March 2023.

Early life and education

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Of African American heritage, Smith grew up Catholic in New Orleans, where he went to Benjamin Franklin High School for his first three years of high school and later attended the Awty International School in Houston, Texas for his senior year because he and his family fled New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina.[1][2] He attended Davidson College, graduating in 2010 with a B.A. in English[3][4] and subsequently obtained a Ph.D. from Harvard University.[5]

Career

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Smith at the National Book Festival in 2022

Smith taught high school English in Prince George's County, Maryland where he was named the Christine D. Sarbanes Teacher of the Year by the Maryland Humanities Council.[6] He then pursued doctoral work at the Harvard Graduate School of Education with a concentration in Culture, Institutions, and Society, earning his PhD in 2020 with his dissertation focusing how children sentenced to life without parole experience educational programming while they are incarcerated.[7]

He was part of the winning team at the 2014 National Poetry Slam[8] and was a 2017 recipient of the Jerome J. Shestack Prize from The American Poetry Review.[9] Smith published his first book of poetry, Counting Descent, in 2016.[10] It won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association[11] and was a finalist for the NAACP Image Awards.[12] He was on the 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 list[13] and Ebony's 2017 Power 100 list.[14]

Smith has also been a contributor to The New Yorker magazine.[15] His work is included in the anthology The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race (2016), edited by Jesmyn Ward.[16] Smith's second book, How the Word Is Passed, was published by Little, Brown on June 1, 2021.[17] It was selected for the New York Times Book Review's "10 Best Books of 2021" list,[18] and he won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for nonfiction for it.[19] Smith is currently working to present the untold stories of World War II to be published by Random House in a nonfiction book, Just Beneath the Soil.[20]

He currently serves as a staff writer at The Atlantic, where his piece, "Monuments to the Unthinkable" was featured as the cover story in December 2022.[21] The article was also named a finalist for the 2023 National Magazine Awards.[22] He hosted Crash Course's Black American History series, which ran from 2021 until late in 2022.[23][24]

A fan of the Arsenal F.C. football (soccer) club and a former college soccer player, Smith has written several essays on the sport.[25][26]

Awards and honors

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  • 2024 NAACP Image Award Finalist[27]
  • 2022 Dayton Literary Peace Prize Nonfiction Winner[28]
  • 2022 Stowe Prize[29]
  • 2022 Hillman Prize for Book Journalism[30]
  • 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction[31]
  • 2021 New York Times "Best Books of 2021 List"[32]
  • 2021 Time Magazine "10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021"[33]
  • 2021 The Root 100[34]
  • 2021 GQ "50 Best Books of Literary Journalism of the 21st Century"[35]
  • 2021 Andrew W Mellon Foundation Fellow-in-Residence[36]
  • 2020 Emerson Fellow at New America[37]
  • 2018 Forbes' "30 Under 30"[38]
  • 2018 Art for Justice Grantee[39]
  • 2017 NAACP Image Award Finalist[12]
  • 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book
  • 2017 Ebony's Power 100 List[14]
  • 2014 National Poetry Slam Winner[40]
  • 2013 Christine D. Sarabanes Teacher of the Year[41]

Personal life

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Smith resides in Maryland with his wife and two children.[5]

References

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  1. ^ Smith, Clint (March 1, 2016). "Donald Trump, David Duke, and the Soccer Fields of Louisiana". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 29, 2018.
  2. ^ "Clint Smith Reflects On This Moment". NPR.org. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  3. ^ "The New Yorker: Clint Smith '10 on Trump, Duke and Disavowal". www.davidson.edu. Davidson College. March 2, 2016. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
  4. ^ Clint, Smith (May 13, 2020). ""What if They Open That Door One Day?" What Education Means to People Sentenced to Juvenile Life Without Parole". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. ^ a b "About Clint Smith". clintsmithiii.com. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
  6. ^ "About". Clint Smith. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  7. ^ Alford, Natasha S. (October 3, 2016). "#GrioAuthorsCircle: Clint Smith reads excerpt from new book 'Counting Descent'". The Grio. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
  8. ^ Dingfelder, Sadie (August 15, 2014). "D.C.'s Beltway Poetry Slam triumphs at the National Poetry Slam". Washington Post. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
  9. ^ "Shestack Prizes Awarded to Clint Smith & Marie Howe". August 31, 2017.
  10. ^ "Through Poetry And TED Talks, Clint Smith Probes Racism In America". WBUR. November 28, 2016. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
  11. ^ "BCALA Announces the 2017 Literary Awards Winners". January 21, 2017. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved June 12, 2018.
  12. ^ a b "NAACP Image Award Nominations Announced". NAACP. December 13, 2016. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved June 12, 2018.
  13. ^ "30 Under 30 2018: Media". Forbes.
  14. ^ a b "The EBONY Power 100 2017". Ebony.
  15. ^ Wile, Rob (May 18, 2016). "This Historian Explains How America Became Resegregated, in 11 Tweets". Fusion. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
  16. ^ The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race. www.simonandschuster.com. 2016. ISBN 9781501126345. Retrieved March 29, 2018.
  17. ^ Smith, Clint (October 9, 2020). How the Word Is Passed. Little, Brown. ISBN 9780316492911 – via www.littlebrown.com.
  18. ^ "The 10 Best Books of 2021". The New York Times. November 30, 2021. Retrieved December 18, 2021.
  19. ^ "Honorée Fanonne Jeffers and Clint Smith have won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize". September 28, 2022.
  20. ^ "Prize-winning author Clint Smith working on book that will 'expand monolithic narrative' of WWII". AP NEWS. May 16, 2023. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
  21. ^ "Clint Smith Joining The Atlantic as a Staff Writer". The Atlantic. July 27, 2020.
  22. ^ "The Atlantic Wins Top Honor of General Excellence for Second Straight Year at 2023 National Magazine Awards". The Atlantic. March 29, 2023. Retrieved June 29, 2023.
  23. ^ "Crash Course Black American History". April 30, 2021 – via www.youtube.com.
  24. ^ Crash Course Black American History Preview
  25. ^ Smith, Clint (March 12, 2018). "The Agony of Being an Arsenal Fan". The New Yorker.
  26. ^ "2009 Men's Soccer Roster". Davidson College Athletics.
  27. ^ "Nominees Announced for the 55th NAACP Image Awards". NAACP Image Awards. January 25, 2024. Retrieved April 4, 2024.
  28. ^ "Award Winners – Dayton Literary Peace Prize". Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  29. ^ "Stowe Prize 2022". Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  30. ^ "How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America". Hillman Foundation. April 11, 2022. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  31. ^ Schaub, Michael (March 18, 2022). "Announcing the Winners of the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Awards". National Book Critics Circle. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  32. ^ "The 10 Best Books of 2021". The New York Times. November 30, 2021. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  33. ^ "The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021". Time. December 8, 2021. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  34. ^ "Clint Smith - The Root 100 - 2021". The Root. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
  35. ^ "The 50 Best Books of Literary Journalism of the 21st Century". GQ. December 9, 2021. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  36. ^ "Mellon Foundation Appoints Farah Jasmine Griffin and Clint Smith as 2021 Fellows in Residence". Mellon Foundation. July 26, 2021. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  37. ^ "Clint Smith - Emerson Collective". www.emersoncollective.com. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  38. ^ "30 Under 30 2018: Media". Forbes. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  39. ^ "Clint Smith". Art for Justice. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  40. ^ "D.C.'s Beltway Poetry Slam triumphs at the National Poetry Slam". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  41. ^ "PGCPS Educator Named Christine D. Sarbanes Teacher of the Year". offices.pgcps.org. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
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