DWR Award Poetry Finalist Jimmie Smith Jr.
This week’s Writer Wednesday is poet, editor, tutor, freelance sports announcer and DWR Award poetry finalist Jimmie Smith Jr. of Chicago!
He was born and raised in Detroit and has been writing poetry since he was 9 years old. Jimmie works as an English and writing tutor and as a freelance sports announcer. Jimmie has a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Michigan State University.
His work has been published in The Overground Railroad Volume 1 anthology (Cherry Castle Publishing, 2014-15), The Skinny Poetry Journal anthology (2019) and Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature (2019-2020).
Join us virtually on Jan. 13 @ 7 p.m. to meet the DWR Award winners and recognize their work! Proceeds benefit our nonprofit arm Coaching Detroit Forward. Get tickets.
What is your favorite part of the writing process?
The revision is my favorite part of my writing process because it has become part of my life. I work as an English/writing tutor, and I do proofreading and editing on the side, so I constantly try to make my writing better!
What does your writing workspace look like?
My writing workspace is anywhere an idea comes to mind; that can be at my apartment, on the bus, while walking outside or at work (please forgive me for the lack of parallel structure here).
What do you enjoy most about writing poetry?
I enjoy attending workshops and working on my craft because I am trying to find new ways and new angles to make my work make sense while improving it simultaneously.
What is your favorite non-writing hobby?
My favorite non-writing hobby is sports because I am a freelance sports announcer. To me, narrating a game is a dream because I can use poetic language to describe things that happen during the games. For example, if someone gets a steal and runs down the court with speed, I may say that the player is "running with celerity to the goal."
What is your favorite piece of writing advice?
If you are writing, and you have writers' block, take a timeout, put the work away for a while, and come back to it at a later time. Also, learn how to get into the mess of your work and read as often as you can because in time, it will make your writing better!
What writing projects are you currently working on?
Right now, I am still trying to figure out the best approach to write poems about my grandmother (my dad's mom) who I never saw before. She died 18 years before I was born because she was beaten to death when my dad was 11. I have only visited her gravesite because I had a dream of doing so in 2017. I have no pictures of her, so I do not know how she looks. I was attempting to write from the perspective of the frying pan that my grandmother was beaten to death with, but I am still working on how that voice and nuance would come into fruition. I also want to write a poem about NFL Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson and the Detroit Pistons (Bad Boys and the 2004 team). I may do one on the Detroit Shock, and I am still working on my Barry Sanders poem as well.