Oct
24
BGSU Firelands Professor Releases Novel The Free Farm
October 24, 2011 | Leave a Comment
Huron, Ohio – Larry Smith, professor emeritus of humanities and English at Bowling Green State University Firelands College, has recently released his newest novel The Free Farm, a coming-of-age story set on an Appalachia commune in the late 1960s.
“It’s a love story set in an exciting time in American culture, when alternatives were sought and lived out. It becomes a tale about freedom and responsibility,” said Smith of his latest book, a sequel to his The Long River Home novel of 2009.
“In this intriguing novel, lead character Lee McCall leaves his Ohio Valley steel mill town to attend Ohio University, but the going is not easy as he takes classes, works to support himself, and tries to form a utopia—a free living commune. Smith provides a unique window into Lee’s life that is driven by idealism, love of Emerson and Thoreau, and devotion to his beautiful partner, Sharon, in this realistic yet surprising and tender novel,” wrote one critic of The Free Farm.
A graduate of Kent State University and Muskingum College, Smith is the author of five books of fiction, eight books of poetry, a book of memoirs, and two biographies of American authors (Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Kenneth Patchen). He teaches courses in literature, film, and writing at the college and is director of the Firelands Writing Center.
Smith is the father of three adult children, and is married to Ann Smith, a professor emerita of Nursing at the Medical College of Ohio.
Smith will be doing a series of book signings and readings throughout the state including: Nov. 13, at 2 p.m. at The Coffeehouse Readings, 140 Columbus Ave., Sandusky, Ohio; Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at Mac’s Backs Books, 1820 Coventry Road, Cleveland, Ohio; and Dec. 2 at 7 p.m. at Visible Voices Bookstore on Kennilworth in Cleveland’s Tremont area.
He will also be presenting on March 21 at the Appalachian Studies Conference at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and on May 12 at the Ohio Book Festival in Columbus, Ohio.
The Free Farm is available in hard or soft cover, ($26 and $18) and may be ordered directly from Bottom Dog Press at http://smithdocs.net, or purchased at the BGSU Firelands Bookstore and other area and on-line bookstores.
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