Bottom Dog Press/ Larry Smith

New Novel...The Free Farm

2011-11-01T04:23:00.001-07:00

My new novel The Free Farm has been released this October in the Appalachian Writing and Working Lives Series from Bottom Dog Press. It has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. It's a love story set in the Ohio Valley, then Ohio University, and then a co-op farm commune in Southern Ohio. In this sequel to his The Long River Home novel, the characters move on into the turbulence and idealism of the late 1960s and early 1970s on an Appalachian farm commune.
"Forbidden love. Counter-culture. The shadow of Vietnam. Sexual revolution. Social unrest. Marijuana and LSD. In this intriguing coming-of-age novel by Larry Smith, The Free Farm, we journey back to America’s turbulent late 60s and early 70s…. Smith provides a unique window into Lee’s young life that is driven by idealism, love of Emerson and Thoreau, and devotion to his beautiful partner, who practices Zen, meditates, and can fix cars….In this realistic yet often surprising and tender novel, a quoted line from 'The Waking' by Theodore Roethke serves as a guidepost: 'I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow/ I feel my fate in what I cannot fear/ I learn by going where I have to go.'" ~ Laura Treacy Bentley, author of Lake Effect

S&S Manuscript Editing Services Available

2011-06-11T13:51:00.000-07:00

When you're ready....

So, we've done it, we've created a service for fellow writers. We feel we can work together with many potential writers to give them and their readers a good book. Susanna Sharp-Schwacke and I have been editing and laying out books for 20 years. Now our services are offered to others. Check out our services.

New DVD...Kenneth Patchen and James Wright

2011-05-04T13:58:00.000-07:00

Now the two Bottom Dog Press documentaries on DVD..."James Wright's Ohio" and "Kenneth Patchen: An Art of Engagement" productions of Tom Koba and Larry Smith
These two Ohio writers are presented in their own words, through interviews with family and friends, and through poem enactments. Excellent for teaching.

Tu Fu Talks with Barack Obama

2009-10-29T12:20:00.000-07:00

Note: New book TU FU COMES TO AMERICA: A Story in Poems is now out from March Street Press, also being sold at Bottom Dog Press homepage (http://smithdocs.net). Check it out...Tu Fu's spirit rescues us all from despair.

Here's a little link to a poem in which ancient poet Tu Fu Talks with Barack Obama...

Update

2009-10-05T16:27:00.001-07:00

Well, it's been a while, and I've been up to many things...teaching, editing others' works, publishing a few, and seeing my own novel The Long River Home reach publication through our Working Lives Series. That has taken me on the road for some readings around the state...even back home to Mingo Junction, Ohio...that one was great. What I have learned is the old "persistence as a way of life" for writers. Don't let the ego get in the way or cause you pain. But do what you must, by all means, do what you must.

New book of translations from Taigu Ryokan

2009-03-13T04:38:00.000-07:00

New book from Taigu Ryokan...The Kanshi Poems of Taigu Ryokan...his journal poems from his years as a mountain monk, translated by Larry Smith and Mei Hui Liu Huang.
Check it out. http://smithdocs.net/laughing_buddha_series_of_books

Working-Class Writing

2009-02-18T12:21:00.000-08:00

General Characteristics of Working-Class Writing and Art:
1) The writing is based on lived experience and shows characters as human persons
in a lived space, depicting their daily life including their actual physical work.
2) The writing creates space for people to speak and represent themselves, includes speech idioms and dialects, curses and blessings.
3) The writing is communal in nature. The individual "I" is speaking for the collective "We."
4) Readers can recognize themselves in the writing; it gives validation to their own stories and culture.
5) The writing gives language to human suffering and grief. Economics forces are recognized thus giving validation to deep feelings often ignore by mainstream art.
6) The writing (art) has agency in the world, is useful.
7) The writing includes forces of history and their impact on human relationship.
8) The writing challenges dominant assumptions about aesthetics... It breaks rules or conventions of form in favor of verity of experience.
9) The writing builds consciousness of class oppression....denial of rights, exploitative marketplace, etc. and may lead to rebellion.
10) The writing takes sides..."Whose Side Are You On?" it asks and then declares.
[Source: Developed in collaboration with Janet Zandy and her Hands: Physical Labor, Class, and Cultural Work (Rutgers University Press)]

Photo Gallery of Cleveland Poetry Scene and Bottom Dog Press

2008-12-31T09:54:00.000-08:00

Here are some images from the last couple years of our activitites in the Cleveland Poetry Scene.

New Addresses...

2008-11-09T16:36:00.001-08:00

AOL went out of the business of hosting web pages this November, and so this has necessitated creating new pages on yahoo.com's small business web hosting. Please check the pages below for our newest address both for Bottom Dog Press and Larry Smith. Let us hear from you.
We have some big new books out. COME TOGETHER: IMAGINE PEACE is a big great anthology of peace poetry. Best, Larry See it at

http://smithdocs.net/foodpoems.htm

Cleveland Poetry Scenes Chronology

2008-01-10T10:58:00.000-08:00

Please check my web page for the Cleveland Poetry Scenes chronology dated from 1945 to the present. It is extensive and open to suggestions for editing and adding to it. d.a.levy, Daniel Thompson, CSU Poetry Center, etc. http://smithdocs.net/Clevelandpoetrychron.html

Our homepage is now http://smithdocs.net

Rebel Poets Portrait

2006-12-14T14:24:00.000-08:00

Looking for additional poets who belong here. Please add yours. Over the years, this image of the poet has evolved...beginning with the Romantic poets of Whitman, Dickinson, Emerson, Thoreau...into a social and cultural outsider who sees and responds to the contemporary world. It's a position of power and insight that gives poetry a motive and works for results...nothing so small as changing the world. Anne Waldman's new book OUTRIDER (La Alameda Press, 2006) asks the question...what is the poet and the poem today? How are they tied to the world?
Here is our new homepage at Bottom Dog Press
http://smithdocs.net/

Writing and Art and Movement

2006-09-23T13:59:00.000-07:00

As a writer I have always been more drawn by the other arts. Walking through a gallery or museum of paintings or photos can move me in stronger ways than most reading can. I've thought this is kind of like the cook who loses his taste for food, but I really do love fine writing and seek to do it. The art though seems to sneak into my mind and heart in all sorts of ways, intuitive and deep. I usually don't think the painting or photograph, it just moves into me, and I like that feeling. Now I do take inspiration from it, and it may come across in my writing, but not as consciously as does reading other writers. This is something I've observed throughout my life and am still seeking to understand. If you can help, write here. Larry

Writing that matters...

2006-09-13T14:01:00.000-07:00

In this crazy and beautiful world we have to measure what we do and how in order to put joy into it. Our intention is always conveyed. I believe it is our prime message. Let it be for peace. Some of these books are called "wonder books" because they abandon rules and because the transform their readers. Some writers who do this well: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Kenneth Patchen, Jonathan Safran Foer. Who would you add? Here's an image of Kenneth Patchen working on his painted books. He found all sorts of ways to get the word out.