Lady Smith

Winner of the 2023 Akron Poetry Prize

Propulsive and erotic, searching and incisive, Jess Smith’s debut collection Lady Smith explores the overlap between private and public violence. These poems investigate the troubled relationship between control and intimacy and deconstruct the messaging women receive about their bodies, starting in childhood. Lady Smith resists the urge to offer a tidy healing narrative, instead revealing the way victims absorb violence and try to live with the long shadows of cultural misunderstandings and self-doubt. Smith offers readers a fearless invitation to pleasure, sensuality, and our own complicity in everyday brutalities.

The Akron Series in Poetry was founded in 1995 to discover and amplify writers who speak in original and compelling voices. Each year, The University of Akron Press offers the Akron Poetry Prize, a competition open to poets writing in English. The winning poet receives ＄1,500 and publication of their book in the series. The final selection is made by a nationally prominent poet.

Jess Smith is the author of Lady Smith, the winner of the 2023 Akron Poetry Prize. Originally from Georgia, she is currently an assistant professor of practice at Texas Tech University, where she also directs the MFA in creative writing.