Jess Smith: Lady Smith

In her debut poetry collection, author Jess Smith – who also currently teaches at Texas Tech – digs into the relationship between women, their bodies, and the violent messaging they receive about those bodies. Having secured the 2023 Akron Poetry Prize for her non-standard narrative of healing, Smith heads to small-press impresarios Alienated Majesty for a book launch where fellow lyrical minds Jennifer Chang (Some Say the Lark) and Tomás Q. Morín (Patient Zero) pitch in poem readings from their own back catalogs. – James Scott