R. T. Smith was raised in Georgia and North Carolina and now lives in Rockbridge County, Virginia. He is the author of twelve poetry collections — including Brightwood, most recently, and Messenger, winner of the Library of Virginia's Literary Award for Poetry — and a book of short stories. His poems have appeared in Atlantic Monthly, Poetry, Kenyon Review, and Virginia Quarterly Review, among other fine journals. A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Department of the Interior, and Arts International, he is the winner of the Salmon International Poetry Prize in Ireland and the Richard Hugo Award from Poetry Northwest. He is the editor of the literary quarterly Shenandoah at Washington and Lee University. (Photo by Sarah Kennedy)