Aaron Smith

Aaron Smith is the author of five books of poetry published by the University of Pittsburgh Press’s Pitt Poetry Series: Stop Lying (2023); The Book of Daniel (2019); Blue on Blue Ground (2005), winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize; Appetite (2012), an NPR Great Read and finalist for the 2013 Paterson Poetry Prize; and Primer (2016), a Poetry Must Read for the Massachusetts Center for the Book. His chapbooks include Men in Groups (New Sins Press, 2011) and What’s Required (Thorngate Road, 2003), winner of the 2003 Frank O’Hara Prize. His work has appeared in such publications as TheKenyon Review, Ploughshares, and Best American Poetry 2013. He is also cohost with James Allen Hall of Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast.

A three-time finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and a two-time finalist for the Thom Gunn Award, Smith is the recipient of fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Mass Cultural Council. He has taught at West Virginia Wesleyan College and is an associate professor in creative writing at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.