Clint Smith

Smith taught high school English in Maryland before writing full time, and How the Word Is Passed grew out of visiting nine places that carry the memory of American slavery differently: Monticello, Angola prison, a Confederate cemetery, a Manhattan burial ground, Goree Island. He interviews the guides as closely as he reads the plaques. He is also a poet, with Counting Descent and Above Ground, and a staff writer at The Atlantic. His doctorate is in education, from Harvard.