A Diamond from Coal Country: The Career of Lee Smith

Lee Marshall Smith has enjoyed a prolific career as a reporter, film critic, newspaper editor, educator, and an award-winning novelist. Among her many published novels and short stories are The Last Day the Dogbushes Bloomed(1968), Oral History (1983), Me and My Baby View the Eclipse (1990), Fair and Tender Ladies (1988), The Devil's Dream (1992), and The Christmas Letters (1996). Smith earned a B.A. in English from Hollins College in 1967. While there, Smith wrote her first novel, The Last Day the Dogbushes Bloomed, which won a Book Club Award. As a student, she interned at the Richmond News Leader and immediately after graduation she worked as a reporter for the Tuscaloosa News.