Ellen McGrath Smith

Ellen McGrath Smith is a Teaching Professor at the University of Pittsburgh's Department of English, affiliated with the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences. She coordinates the Writing Center/Writing Institute Graduate Programs and edits *The Fifth Floor*, the department's e-newsletter. Her roles include teaching in Writing and Composition programs and leading workshops through Madwomen in the Attic and Zoeglossia. Born in Pittsburgh, she holds a PhD from Duquesne University (dissertation on Protestant poetics and 20th-century American poetry) and an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh with a Cultural Studies certificate.

Smith's research focuses on hybrid forms like prose poetry, sociopolitical dimensions of poetic structure, and recovering overlooked poets like Sara Henderson Hay. Her critical work appears in *The Denver Quarterly* and *The American Book Review*. She has published poetry in *The New York Times*, *The American Poetry Review*, and anthologies such as *Beauty Is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability*.

Award highlights include the Orlando Prize (2012), a 2007 Pennsylvania Individual Artist Grant, and recognition from Zone 3 magazine. Her books include the 2023 chapbook *Lie Low, Goaded Lamb* and the 2015 hybrid collection *Nobody's Jackknife*.

Smith's pedagogical contributions include fantasy studies fellowships, experiential learning programs, and graduate writing initiatives. She actively participates in literary communities like City of Asylum and Sentence: A Journal of Prose Poetics.