Clint Smith is a staff writer at The Atlantic. He is the author of the narrative nonfiction book, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America, which was a #1 New York Times bestseller and one of the New York Times Top Ten Books of 2021. He is also the author of the poetry collection Counting Descent. The book won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. He has received fellowships from New America, the Emerson Collective, the Art For Justice Fund, Cave Canem, and the National Science Foundation. His writing has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review and elsewhere. Born and raised in New Orleans, he received his B.A. in English from Davidson College and his Ph.D. in Education from Harvard University.
"History is often contested ground; people argue over whose stories
matter, and how they are communicated. In this personal, thoughtful
book, Smith visits the landmarks and museums that attempt to tell
Americans the story of slavery. Along the way, he talks to all
kinds of people, encountering moments of anger and denial as well
as sparks of hope, humanity and grace."--People, Black History
Month reading list
"The power of an itinerant narrator--Smith journeys to Monticello,
Angola Prison, Blandford Cemetery, and downtown Manhattan--is that
it reveals slavery's expansive, geographical legacy. Smith tells
his stories with the soul of a poet and the heart of an
educator."--The Millions
"In this exploration of the ways we talk about -- and avoid talking
about -- slavery, Smith blends reportage and deep critical thinking
to produce a work that interrogates both history and memory."--Kate
Tuttle, Boston Globe
"Merging memoir, travelogue, and history, Smith fashions an
affecting, often lyrical narrative of witness."--The New York
Review of Books
"With careful research, scholarship, and perspective, Smith
underscores a necessary truth: the imprint of slavery is
unyieldingly present in contemporary America, and the stories of
its legacy, of the enslaved people and their descendants, are
everywhere."--TeenVogue
"An important and timely book about race in America."--Drew Faust,
Harvard Magazine
"Both an honoring and an exposé of slavery's legacy in America and
how this nation is built upon the experiences, blood, sweat and
tears of the formerly enslaved."--The Root
"Clint Smith, in his new book "How the Word Is Passed," has created
something subtle and extraordinary."--Christian Science Monitor
"Part of what makes this book so brilliant is its bothandedness. It
is both a searching historical work and a journalistic account of
how these historic sites operate today. Its both carefully
researched and lyrical. I mean Smith is a poet and the sentences in
this book just are piercingly alive. And it's both extremely
personal--it is the author's story--and extraordinarily sweeping.
It amplifies lots of other voices. Past and present. Reading it I
kept thinking about that great Alice Walker line 'All History is
Current'."--John Green, New York Times bestselling author of The
Anthropocene Reviewed
"Raises questions that we must all address, without recourse to
wishful thinking or the collective ignorance and willful denial
that fuels white supremacy." --Martha Anne Toll, The Washington
Post
"Sketches an impressive and deeply affecting human cartography of
America's historical conscience...an extraordinary contribution to
the way we understand ourselves." --Julian Lucas, New York Times
Book Review
"The detail and depth of the storytelling is vivid and visceral,
making history present and real. Equally commendable is the care
and compassion shown to those Smith interviews -- whether tour
guides or fellow visitors in these many spaces. Due to his care as
an interviewer, the responses Smith elicits are resonant and
powerful. . . . Smith deftly connects the past, hiding in plain
sight, with today's lingering effects."--Hope Wabuke, NPR
"The summer's most visionary work of nonfiction is this radical
reckoning with slavery, as represented in the nation's monuments,
plantations, and landmarks."--Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire
"The Atlantic writer drafts a history of slavery in this country
unlike anything you've read before."--Entertainment Weekly
"This isn't just a work of history, it's an intimate, active
exploration of how we're still constructing and distorting our
history." --Ron Charles, The Washington Post
"What [Smith] does, quite successfully, is show that we whitewash
our history at our own risk. That history is literally still here,
taking up acres of space, memorializing the past, and teaching us
how we got to be where we are, and the way we are. Bury it now and
it will only come calling later." --USA Today
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