Larry R. Smith | Author

Larry R. Smith
I am an editor and reviewer and a poet, fiction writer, essayist, & publisher.

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Coffeehouse Reading Series in Sandusky--Robert Flanagan

Jun.04.2013

Coffeehouse Reading Series in Sandusky--Robert Flanagan

We've been doing these monthly coffeehouse readings for over 15 years in Sandusky...adding local young musicians now...Next feature if Robert Flanagan, fiction writer and poet...Ohio Wesleyan prof. emeritus...and a member of Red Room for Authors...Event is June 15th...2 pm.

Featured Works

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PUBLISHED: Jun.20.2012

Each Moment All: Poems

Poems to bring you peace...Here are poems as meditations, meditations as poems, all in the zen spirit of Smith. A March Street Press Book limited edition / Now available from the Laughing Buddha Series at Bottom Dog Press “There’s a Buddha in Larry Smith’s Ohio garden. Peaceful, watchful and calm. Glide into these beautiful new poems like a bee, each one a petal of a...

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PUBLISHED: Apr.06.2012

Selected Correspondence of Kenneth Patchen

Larry Smith was the general editor on this book edited by AllenFrost for Bottom Dog Press. He also wrote the Foreword and compiled the biographies for the correspondents. The book includes the selected correspondence of Kenneth Patchen with letters from and to: Harvey Breit - E.E. Cummings - James T. Farrell - Lawrence Ferlinghetti - James Laughlin- Henry Miller - Miriam Patchen...

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PUBLISHED: Oct.07.2011

The Free Farm: A Novel

“Larry Smith's The Free Farm is both a novel and a romance about the hard truth of family and the ways we discover the nature of who we are by whom and what we love. Written in a strong, sensitive but never sentimentalizing voice, Smith has penned a kind of spiritual being-of-age novel, while still providing a clear-eyed look at a turbulent, fascinating era of...

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PUBLISHED: Feb.17.2011

Awash with Roses: Collected Love Poems of Kenneth Patchen with biography essay by Larry Smith

100 poems by this master of the love poem, rebel poet Kenneth Patchen. Larry Smith provides a long biographic story of the lives of Kenneth and Miriam Patchen in "When the Wreath Touches the Heart." This is a revised, re-issue of this classic.

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PUBLISHED: Dec.12.2010

Mingo Junction, Ohio: Images of America

This is in the Arcadia Publishing series of profiles of small towns in America, their Images of America series. Over 200 photos with detailed captions and chapter introductions tell the story of the industrial, working-class town of Mingo Junction, Ohio on the Ohio River. The book was done by Larry Smith and Guy Mason as co-authors and co-editors. Photos and history were supplied...

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PUBLISHED: Sep.29.2010

Tu Fu Comes to America: A Story in Poems

Here is a story of Chinese poet Tu Fu coming to America and living on the streets of Cleveland.By channeling Tu Fu into our times, poet, novelist, translator Larry Smith tells two stories in one. This is Smith's eighth book of poems.60 pages, $9. Tu Fu Comes to America is a compelling verse novel depicting the poignant realities of working immigrants. Smith’s spare, sturdy lines...

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PUBLISHED: Mar.03.2010

Bottom Dog Press Anniversary Poetry Anthology

Here are some of the best Midwest poets from the 25 years of publication by Bottom Dog Press. 65 poets from 91 books. 156 pages...$16.00...Out in March. Edited by Laura Smith, Allen Frost, with senior editor Larry Smith. *From the Introduction by Laura Smith: "Reading through this collection of poems one senses the evolution of the essence of this prolific, independent...

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PUBLISHED: Aug.18.2009

The Long River Home: A Novel

A family saga set in the green heartlands of Ohio's Appalachia. "In this fine Appalachian novel, Larry Smith chronicles four generations of McCalls, their joys and sorrows, their sins and their nobility....Such regional fiction has always been about people: their connections with one another, their home place, their struggles to survive and to prosper. It's all here, set, in...

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PUBLISHED: Oct.10.2007

Faces and Voices: Tales

A collection of fiction monologues covering young to old in the tradiiton of Sherwood Anderson short stories as portraits of the lives of characters around him. Smith's third book of ficiton and his first with Bird Dog Publishing.

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PUBLISHED:

The Kanshi Poems of Taigu Ryokan

100 poems by Buddhist monk Taigu Ryokan (1758-1831) from his Kanshi (journal) poems. Revered worldwide for his simplicity, wit, and carefree spirit, Ryokan is presented here in original Chinese, Japanese, and in these fine translations by poets Mei Hui Liu Huang and Larry Smith. Their previous works include Songs of the Woodcutter: Zen Poems of Wang Wei and Taigu Ryokan and Chinese...

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PUBLISHED: Nov.11.2008

Come Together: Imagine Peace: Poems

Poetry Anthology co-edited with Ann Smith and Philip Metres 100 poems from older and contemporary poets envisioning a world of peace. Poems of Witness & Elegy,Exhortation & Action,Reconciliation, Shared Humanity,Wildness & Home,Ritual & Vigil, Meditation & Prayer. Precedents: Sappho, Whitman, Dickinson, Cavafy, Millay, Patchen, Rexroth, Shapiro,...

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PUBLISHED: Oct.10.2005

Milldust and Roses: Memoirs

"Milldust and Roses is a beautiful tapestry, the substance of which describes an Ohio Valley working-class family from the mid-century onward....The book is formatted like a family albun with wonderful prose snapshots illustrating the town, his growing family, his wife and himself." -Holly Beye

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PUBLISHED: May.04.2003

Songs of the Woodcutter: Zen Poems of Wang Wei and Ryokan

A selection of the best poems by Chinese Buddhist poet Wang Wei and Japan's Taigu Ryokan read by the translator Larry Smith with flute music by Monte Page. The CD includes a 16 page booklet of the poems in translation. It's a meditative experience of the words, vision, and music of these fine poets.

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PUBLISHED: Dec.31.1997

Steel Valley: Postcards and Letters

These postcards and letters are really the poems of an Ohio Valley native who stays close to the people he writes about.

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PUBLISHED: Jun.25.2009

Songs of the Woodcutter: Zen Poems of Wang Wei and Taigu Ryokan

Translations of Wang Wei and Taigu Ryokan by Larry Smith who reads them here with flute from Monte Page. Includes 15 page book and audio CD.

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PUBLISHED: Oct.10.2007

d.a.levy and the mimeograph revolution

Smith provides the biographical essay and basic chronology of the times.Other essays are by Ed Sanders, Gary Snyder, T.L. Kryss, rjs, Karl Young, Allen Frost, Joel Lipman, Kent Taylor, Mark Kuhar, Ingrid Swanberg, , Russell Salamon, John Jacob, Douglas Manson, Michael Basinski, Jim Lang, and others d.a.levy & the mimeograph revolution tells the story of one man's vision...

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PUBLISHED: Jun.06.2006

A River Remains: Poems

From back cover: "A River Remains embodies the waterway of its title: in these poems the world is at once evanescent and permantent, always changing, yet always there. A collection of large scope built mostly from brief lyrics, narratives and meditations, it stands as the most compelling work from an already distinguised career."

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PUBLISHED: Feb.11.1996

Beyond Rust

Novella set in industrial Lorain, Ohio, along with short stories set in industrial Ohio Valley and four works of creative nonfiction.

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PUBLISHED:

James Wright's Ohio

This is the 30 minute DVD docudrama of James Wright's Ohio done by Larry Smith and Tom Koba. It presents the poet through statements, interviews with fellow poets and his two wives, and uses images and sounds from his Ohio hometown, Martins Ferry, Ohio. Done with a grant from the Ohio Humanities Council and Ohio Arts Council.

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Larry's Latest Blogs

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Jun.04.2013 - 4:42 am

Getting Reviews...

As a publisher of a literary small press for over 25 years, I can tell you that getting book reviews in major newspapers or magazines is a challenge. It takes more time than I...

Jun.04.2013 - 4:42 am

Getting Reviews...

As a publisher of a literary small press for over 25 years, I can tell you that getting book reviews in major newspapers or magazines is a challenge. It takes more time than I...

Dec.15.2012 - 11:17 am

Searching for some peace amidst a tragedy.

http://www.fci.org/new-site/par-tragic-events.html This quote from Fred Rogers makes the most heart sense. I just want to share it with you. "When I was a boy and I would see...

Dec.12.2012 - 6:38 am

Announcement 150th Book from Bottom Dog Press

Bottom Dog Press has been around for 27 years now, and we have just published our 150th book through our imprint Bird Dog Publishing. We grew from doing a chapbook the first year...

Comments from Larry

Jun.04.2013 - 10:30 am

In response to: Getting Reviews...

Other sympathetic review sites?

I would appreciate sharing with others some of the reviewers and/or media that are open to small press books. New York...

Aug.30.2011 - 6:19 am

In response to: Why Art Matters...

Orion magazine

In the midst of our media madness, there is this sane voice coming from ORION...They deserve our support.

Apr.24.2011 - 7:35 am

In response to: The Storyteller's Story

This is for us all, but especially for storytellers...

Sue passed away 2 years ago. Her stories live on. Imagine Peace, Larry Smith

Mar.10.2011 - 8:36 am

In response to: So What Would a Great Book Launch Look Like?

The event continues....

We're stretching our 15 minutes of fame with continued sales on the internet and in the grocery stores back home....

Mar.09.2011 - 5:24 am

In response to: So What Would a Great Book Launch Look Like?

What a day for a town and its story

Hope you share this story. Imagine Peace, Larry Smith

Writing

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Poem: Reading the Weather by Larry Smith

Essay: Excerpt from review of Denise Levertov: A Poet's Life by Dana Greene

Poem: The Storyteller's Story

Published Reviews

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Dec.12.2011

The Free Farm: A Novel

Published by Athens News

"The Free Farm" is a pleasurable read about an OU student who struggles balancing social change, the woman he loves, and the college lifestyle at OU. It gives an eye-level...

Audio & Video

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Video: Walking a Field into Evening

Video: Two Poems from Kenneth Patchen

Video: "The Lives of the Ain'ts" A poem for resistance by Larry Smith

On The Free Farm: A Novel...Smith provides a unique window into Lee’s young life that is driven by idealism, love of Emerson and Thoreau, and devotion to his beautiful partner, who practices Zen, meditates, and can fix cars….In this realistic yet often surprising and tender novel, a quoted line from 'The Waking' by Theodore Roethke serves as a guidepost: 'I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow/ I feel my fate in what I cannot fear/ I learn by going where I have to go.' ”

—Laura Treacy Bentley

About Larry

I grew up in the industrial Ohio River Valley along the green Appalachian hills. I taught 3 years on high school English before returning to grad school at Kent State University and was there with my wife and daughter during the Kent State shootings. I then...

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Connections

Causes Larry Smith Supports

peace and justice, meditation

Larry’s Favorite Books

Walden, Kenneth Patchen Collected Poems

Larry R. SmithI am an editor and reviewer and a poet, fiction writer, essayist, & publisher.

Latest News & Events

Coffeehouse Reading Series in Sandusky--Robert Flanagan

Featured Works

Larry's Latest Blogs

Comments from Larry

Writing

Published Reviews

Audio & Video

About Larry

Connections

Causes Larry Smith Supports

Larry’s Favorite Books

Larry R. Smith
I am an editor and reviewer and a poet, fiction writer, essayist, & publisher.