Meet the Taos Resident Award Winner: Jan Smith

Jan M. Smith is an active member of writing communities from New England to New Mexico. She is working on her Masters of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from Goddard College in Plainfield, VT, and currently lives in Taos, New Mexiso. Smith says, “I think creatives are attracted to Northern New Mexico--especially Santa Fe and Taos. I felt the call to stay here after only visiting for two hours -- after living my entire life in New England!” In 2008, Smith left a twenty-five-year career in social work to pursue her dream of becoming a writer. In addition to writing, she curates the Society of the Muse of the Southwest (SOMOS) Winter and Summer Writing Series. She is a successful writer across genres, publishing poetry and short stories in Howl, the UNM journal, Chokecherries, and The Pitkin Review. She is currently working on a coming-of-age memoir titled, Blink Like Crazy.

The Taos Resident award recognizes excellence in fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, and provides paid tuition support to a resident of Taos County, New Mexico for the Taos Summer Writers’ Conference. The Conference, named one of the top ten writers’ conferences in the US and now in its 15th year, will be held at the Sagebrush Inn Conference Center in beautiful Taos, New Mexico, July 14-21. Participants from worldwide convene in weeklong and weekend workshops led by acclaimed writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and screenwriting.

Jan Smith will be participating in a fiction workshop led by the highly admired author of four bestselling novels, Wally Lamb. She says, “When I saw that he was teaching at the TSWC this year, I HAD to come.” Smith will be reading on Wednesday, July 17th at 12:30 p.m. at the Sagebrush Inn Conference Center. This event is free and open to the public.