Smith, Larry: - Larry Smith is a poet, novelist, critic, and biographer. His literary biographies include Kenneth Patchen (Twayne Series, G.K. Hall, 1978) and Lawrence Ferlinghetti: Poet-at-Large (Southern Illinois University Press, 1983). His also wrote and co-produced with Tom Koba two video docu-dramas Kenneth Patchen: Poet of Engagement and James Wright's Ohio. He has edited books of

Appalachian and working-class writing for Bottom Dog Press. Together with his wife Ann and poet Phil Metres he edited the national anthology Come Together: Imagine Peace for Bottom Dog Press.

Smith is a professor emeritus of English and Humanities at Firelands College of Bowling Green State University and holds a doctorate from Kent State University. In 1980-1981 he held a Fullbright lectureship in Sicily where he taught a course on American Romanticism and the Beat Movement. His recent books include the novels The Long River Home and The Free Farm, and two books of poetry, A River Remains and Each Moment All.

As a native of the industrial Ohio River Valley he shares a working-class background with author Kenneth Patchen. He and wife Ann live along the shores of Lake Erie in Huron, Ohio.