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 ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times ...

, '' How the Word Is Passed'', which won the 2021

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

heritage, Smith grew up

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, where he went to Benjamin Franklin High School for his first three years of high school and later attended the

Awty International School The Awty International School is a private school located in Spring Branch, western Houston, Texas, United States. Founded in 1956, Awty allows its students to receive the International Baccalaureate or the French Baccalauréat, and is fully ac ...

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

for his

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

year because he and his family fled New Orleans due to

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

. He attended

Davidson College Davidson College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Davidson, North Carolina, United States. It was established in 1837 by the Concord Presbytery and named after American Revolutiona ...

, graduating in 2010 with a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

and subsequently obtained a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Career

Smith taught high school English in

Prince George's County Prince George's County (often shortened to PG County or PG) is located in the U.S. state of Maryland bordering the eastern portion of Washington, D.C. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 967,201, making it the second-most populous ...

, Maryland where he was named the Christine D. Sarbanes Teacher of the Year by the Maryland Humanities Council. He then pursued doctoral work at the

Harvard Graduate School of Education The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is the education school of Harvard University, a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1920, it was the first school to grant the EdD degree and the first ...

with a concentration in Culture, Institutions, and Society, earning his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 2020 with his dissertation focusing how children sentenced to life without parole experience educational programming while they are incarcerated. He was part of the winning team at the 2014

National Poetry Slam The National Poetry Slam (NPS) was a performance poetry competition where teams from across the United States, Canada, and, occasionally, Europe and Australia, participate in a large-scale poetry slam. The event occurred in early August every y ...

and was a 2017 recipient of the Jerome J. Shestack Prize from

The American Poetry Review ''The American Poetry Review'' (''APR'') is an American poetry magazine printed every other month on tabloid-sized newsprint. It was founded in 1972 by Stephen Berg and Stephen Parker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The magazine's editor is Elizab ...

. Smith published his first book of poetry, ''Counting Descent'', in 2016. It won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the

Black Caucus of the American Library Association The Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) is an affiliate of the American Library Association (ALA) that focuses on the needs of African-American library professionals by promoting careers in librarianship, funding literacy i ...

and was a finalist for the

NAACP Image Awards The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. The over 40 ...

. He was on the 2018 ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 list and ''Ebony'''s 2017 Power 100 list. Smith has also been a contributor to ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' magazine. His work is included in the anthology '' The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race'' (2016), edited by

Jesmyn Ward Jesmyn Ward (born April 1, 1977) is an American novelist and a professor of English at Tulane University, where she holds the Andrew W. Mellon Professorship in the Humanities. She won the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction for her second novel ...

. Smith's second book, ''How the Word Is Passed'', was published by

Little, Brown Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries, it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emil ...

on June 1, 2021. It was selected for the ''

New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

''s "10 Best Books of 2021" list, and he won the

Dayton Literary Peace Prize The Dayton Literary Peace Prize is an annual United States literary award "recognizing the power of the written word to promote peace" that was first awarded in 2006. Awards are given for adult fiction and non-fiction books published at some point ...

for nonfiction for it. Smith is currently working to present the untold stories of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

to be published by Random House in a nonfiction book, ''Just Beneath the Soil.'' He currently serves as a staff writer at ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

,'' where his piece
"Monuments to the Unthinkable"
was featured as the cover story in December 2022. The article was also named a finalist for the 2023 National Magazine Awards. He hosted Crash Course's ''Black American History'' series, which ran from 2021 until late in 2022. A fan of the

Arsenal F.C. The Arsenal Football Club, commonly known as simply Arsenal, is a professional football club based in Islington, North London, England. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. In domestic football, Arsenal h ...

football (soccer) club and a former college soccer player, Smith has written several essays on the sport.

Awards and honors

* 2024 NAACP Image Award Finalist * 2022 Dayton Literary Peace Prize Nonfiction Winner * 2022 Stowe Prize * 2022 Hillman Prize for Book Journalism * 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction * 2021 ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

"''Best Books of 2021 List" * 2021

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York Cit ...

"10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021" * 2021

The Root "The Root" is a song by American recording artist D'Angelo. It is the eighth track on his second studio album, '' Voodoo'', which was released on January 25, 2000, by Virgin Records. "The Root" was recorded and produced by D'Angelo at New York's ...

100 * 2021 GQ "50 Best Books of Literary Journalism of the 21st Century" * 2021 Andrew W Mellon Foundation Fellow-in-Residence * 2020 Emerson Fellow at New America * 2018

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

' "30 Under 30" * 2018 Art for Justice Grantee * 2017

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

Image Award Finalist * 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book * 2017

Ebony Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus '' Diospyros'', which also includes the persimmon tree. A few ''Diospyros'' species, such as macassar and mun ebony, are dense enough to sink in water. Ebony is fin ...

's Power 100 List * 2014 National Poetry Slam Winner * 2013 Christine D. Sarabanes Teacher of the Year

Personal life

Smith resides in Maryland with his wife and two children.

References

External links

*
Lessons for ''How the Word Is Passed'' by Clint Smith.
Lessons and discussion questions by Ursula Wolfe-Rocca, Cierra Kaler-Jones, Bill Bigelow, Jesse Hagopian, and Ana Rosado. {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Clint 1988 births Living people 21st-century American poets African-American poets Davidson College alumni Harvard Graduate School of Education alumni Writers from New Orleans African-American Catholics 21st-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American writers National Book Critics Circle Award winners