Patricia Smith Is the Newest Miller Williams Poetry Series Editor

The University of Arkansas has named Patricia Smith the newest editor of the Miller Williams Poetry Series. Smith succeeds Billy Collins, who has served as editor of the series since 2015. "'I love poems that vivify and disturb,' Smith said." More: 

“No matter what genre we write in, we're all essentially storytellers — but it's poets who toil most industriously, telling huge unwieldy stories within tight and gorgeously controlled confines, stories that are structurally and sonically adventurous, and it's magic every time it happens. Simply put, when I read a poetry book, I want something to shift in my chest. I want my world to change.”

Every year, the University of Arkansas Press accepts submissions for the Miller Williams Poetry Series and, from the books selected, awards the $5,000 Miller Williams Poetry Prize in the following summer.

Smith will select the winner and finalists for the 2022 Miller Williams Poetry Prize. Submissions are currently open and will be accepted until Sept. 30. For submission details, please visit uapress.com.

The series and prize are named for and operated to honor the cofounder, longtime director of the press, and venerated poet in his own right, Miller Williams.

Smith takes over stewardship of the series and prize from Billy Collins. Collins was poet laureate of the United States from 2001–2003 and poet laureate of the state of New York from 2004–2006 and editor of the Miller Williams Poetry Series since 2015.

His first book, The Apple that Astonished Paris, was published by the University of Arkansas Press in 1988, under the directorship of Miller Williams. Collins is the author of 14 books of poetry.

More via the University of Arkansas.