AUTHOR
"I’m trusting that these shared meals are accomplishing, or may yet accomplish, something with good in it. Perhaps, at the very least, they’re a start." - from "Yarns and Yams" Now that we've reached the month when many families in the US gather for Thanksgiving meals, I'm sharing this reflection I wrote earlier in the... Continue Reading →
"It’s the memories of care that strike me in a different, deeper place." - from "On Memories and Acts of Care" I'm pleased to share my recent piece "On Memories and Acts of Care," which appeared in The Polk Street Review 2025, where it was awarded the 2025 Award of Merit (Best in Book) prize. Read on... Continue Reading →
Are there memories whose goodness has surprised you? Though not a poet, I took a workshop earlier this year which involved writing a poem that explored the divine through joy. Inspired by the vividness of Li-Young Lee’s sense-awakening poem “From Blossoms”, I tried writing about a kind of remembering moment that has taken me by surprise,... Continue Reading →
What happens inside as you mourn? Where does mourning take you? I’m guessing a lot of us have much, much more familiarity with mourning since 2020. We’ve lost things. We’ve lost people. As I, myself, have mourned, I’ve felt longing winding itself through that sense of loss. I long for people, I long for ways... Continue Reading →
What do you do that keeps you sane? In my first “Silly Things We Do” essay, I speculated that many of us have these things we do that would appear impractical and odd were it not for the good they do us. Funny how writing about that one habit of resting in winter sunshine has... Continue Reading →
Autumn makes me think of my grandmother’s pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies. She’d cover them in orange buttercream frosting and then decorate the tops with Jack-o’-lantern faces using a rich cocoa icing. I loved those cookies. My grandmother sold them for 35 cents apiece at the local pumpkin festival, and they sold out every year. My grandmother... Continue Reading →
Callie J. Smith 