Originally from Ladysmith, poet Abraham Smith creates images that reference Northwoods themes, from hibernating bears, PBR, and dead deer, to white pines, hay bales and winters of ceaseless gray. Smith's style embraces slam poetry coupled with more traditional motifs and forms, and his vibrant language, which has been called "unpunctuated, puncturing burble...propulsive, funny, unforgiving and raw" by Joshua Marie Wilkinson, writing in Small Press Distribution, makes for an exciting evening of dynamic reading. As critic Erin Mullikin notes, "To See Abraham Smith read his poetry is to watch a man on fire for the word." His poetry collections are Whim Man Mammon (Action Books, 2007) and Hank (Action Books, 2010). In 2004, he was named a Writing Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Mass. He has performed his work at the St. Mark’s Poetry Project in New York, the National Poetry Slam, the Taos Poetry Circus, and the South-by-Southwest Music Festival. He currently teaches literature and creative writing in the English department at the University of Alabama. To read a sample of Abraham Smith's work, click here: www.storysouth.com/spring2003/smith.html