Dinitia Smith (born December 26, 1945) is an American author and filmmaker.

Early life

Smith was born in

Cumberland, Maryland Cumberland is a U.S. city in and the county seat of Allegany County, Maryland. It is the primary city of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 19,076. Located on the Potomac River, ...

, and raised primarily in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...

, where her father was a journalist. She came to the United States in 1959, and lived in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and Westchester. After graduating from

Smith College Smith College is a private liberal arts women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith and opened in 1875. It is the largest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite women's coll ...

, she worked as a reporter for the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...

in New York. She enrolled in the

New York University Film School The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the ar ...

, and in 1971 obtained a Masters of Fine Arts.

Career

In 1971, she wrote and directed her first film, ''Passing Quietly Through'', under her then-married name McCarthy. That film was one of the first films by a woman to be chosen for the

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, i ...

. Smith continued to make documentaries, including some with American documentary filmmaker,

David Grubin David Grubin (born 1944) is an American documentary filmmaker. Career Grubin is best known for producing television documentaries for PBS, notably ''American Experience'' and ''Healing And The Mind with Bill Moyers''. His work has won two Alfr ...

, and also wrote several screenplays. Her films have been shown at the

Whitney Museum The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

and the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...

. In 1975, Smith won an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for a film she made for WNBC–TV. She published her first novel, ''The Hard Rain'', in 1980. Her second novel, ''Remember This'', won her fellowships from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

and the

Ingram Merrill Foundation The Ingram Merrill Foundation was a private foundation established in the mid-1950s by poet James Merrill (1926-1995), using funds from his substantial family inheritance.J. D. McClatchyBraving the Elements ''The New Yorker'', 27 March 1995. Retrie ...

. Her short fiction has been published in numerous literary journals. Smith was also a contributing editor at ''New York'' magazine; from 1995 to 2006 she worked for ''The New York Times'', where she wrote about arts and intellectual trends and ideas. Her third novel, ''The Illusionist'', published in 1997, was a ''New York Times'' Notable Book of the Year. ''The Honeymoon'', her biographical novel about the 19th century writer

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

, was published in 2016. ''The New York Times'' wrote that "Smith's enchanting account humanizes a figure renowned as much for her refutation of conventional female stereotypes and social limitations as for her genius for story and language". A reviewer for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' called the book "the perfect example of when fictional storytelling about an eminent person is warranted". Smith's fifth novel, ''The Prince'', is forthcoming in March 2022 from

Arcade Publishing Arcade Publishing is an independent trade publishing company that started in 1988 in New York, USA. It publishes American and world fiction and nonfiction. The company was started and run by Richard Seaver and his wife Jeannette.Weber, Bruce (J ...

. A modern retelling of

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

's '' The Golden Bowl'', ''The Prince'' is described as "elegant and compelling" by novelist Hilma Wolitzer. Author

Jay Parini Jay Parini (born April 2, 1948) is an American writer and academic. He is known for novels, poetry, biography, screenplays and criticism. He has published novels about Leo Tolstoy, Walter Benjamin, Paul the Apostle, and Herman Melville. Early l ...

writes, ''"The Prince'' gently but relentlessly furls us in the shimmering world of New York high society, conjuring Henry James in a brilliant way... One is left wishing for more and more." Smith has taught at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and the

Bread Loaf Writers' Conference The Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is an author's conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain, east of Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1926, it has been called by '' The New Yorker'' "the oldest and most ...

Personal life

Smith has been married to historian and author

David Nasaw David Nasaw (born July 18, 1945) is an American author, biographer and historian who specializes in the cultural, social and business history of early 20th Century America. Nasaw is on the faculty of the Graduate Center of the City University o ...

since 1978. It is a second marriage for both. They have two sons.

Bibliography

*''The Hard Rain'',

Dial Press The Dial Press was a publishing house founded in 1923 by Lincoln MacVeagh. The Dial Press shared a building with '' The Dial'' and Scofield Thayer worked with both. The first imprint was issued in 1924. Authors included Elizabeth Bowen, W. ...

(1980) *''Remember This'', Henry Holt & Co (1989) *''The Illusionist'', Scribner (1997) *''The Honeymoon'',

Other Press Other Press is an independent publisher of literary fiction and nonfiction, based in New York City. Founded in 1998 to publish academic and psychoanalytic titles, Other Press has since expanded to publish novels, short stories, nonfiction, poetr ...

(2016) *''The Prince'',

(March 2022)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Dinitia 1945 births Living people American women writers Smith College alumni Tisch School of the Arts alumni People from Cumberland, Maryland