The Palms

As both a poet and novelist, Charlie Smith has been hailed as one of the most original voices on the literary scene today. The New York Times calls him "prodigiously talented" and Madison Smartt Bell describes him as "not only a spectacular stylist but also a visionary." He is the author of four novels, a book of novellas, and two previous volumes of poetry, Red Roads and Indistinguishable from the Darkness. In images both stark and voluptuous, Charlie Smith writes in The Palms of a world that is sometimes brutal, violent, and chaotic. His mythmaking imagination, Stanley Kunitz says, is "the art of the born storyteller...in love with language and places, heart's mysteries, and the invitation of roads." He follows where the imagination leads, whether it be driving a rental car east on Sunset Boulevard or "stepping into Nebraska / as one would step onto a white ferry." In his willingness to stand looking until he sees, he draws us into the urgency and glory of American life.