Creative Writing

Emily Louise Smith

senior lecturer, director of The Publishing Laboratory,
publisher, Lookout Books and Ecotone
Kenan 1105 | 910.962.7401 | smithel@uncw.edu

Emily SmithBackground

MFA, UNCW, 2006
BA, Davidson College, 1999

Publications

Emily's poems and essays appear in Best New Poets, the Southern Review, Southern Poetry Anthology: North Carolina, Boulevard, Front Porch, New South, The Journal, Smartish Pace, 27 Views of Wilmington, Salt, and Literary Publishing in the Twenty-First Century, among others.


Awards

  • Writer-in-Residence, Rivendell Writers' Colony, 2016
  • Truro Center for the Arts residency, 2015
  • The Studios of Key West residency, 2013
  • UNCW Lecturer of the Year, 2011
  • Woman of Achievement in the Arts, 2011
  • Hambidge / NEA New Artist Initiative residency, 2011
  • Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize, 2010
  • Best New Poets, 2010
  • Virginia Center for the Creative Arts residency, 2010
  • Writer-in-Residence, Hub City Writers Project, 2006-07
  • Byington Fellow, UNCW, 2005

Emily Louise Smith is director of The Publishing Laboratory and co-founder and publisher of Lookout Books and its sister magazine, Ecotone. She teaches Introduction to Book Publishing, Bookbuilding, Publishing Practicum, the Business of Being a Writer, and various special topics courses in publishing.

With a background in advertising and development, Emily began her publishing career as an assistant to former CEO of HarperCollins Canada and Publishing Laboratory founder, Stanley Colbert. After designing the inaugural issues of Ecotone and earning her MFA in poetry, she went on to work as an editor, designer, and publicist for Hub City Press, and returned to UNCW in 2007 to direct the department's teaching press. She negotiated its distribution agreement, implemented the first overhaul and expansion of its textbook, Show & Tell: Writers on Writing, and in 2009 co-founded its award-winning literary imprint, Lookout Books.

Articles & Interviews