The blue Victorian house near the heart of downtown Columbus has new occupants. Its upper room, where writer Michael Farris Smith honed his stories and strummed guitar, now welcomes others. After a decade in Columbus, Smith and his wife, Sabrea, and daughters Presley, 12, and Brooklyn, 6, are making a new home in Oxford. Their move was completed Memorial Day weekend.
The transition is somewhat bittersweet for the author who came to Columbus in 2007 to join Mississippi University for Women as associate professor of English. It’s in Columbus that Smith reached creative milestones including release of his novels “Desperation Road” and “Rivers,” and a novella, “The Hands of Strangers.” Each has increased the Magnolia native’s literary stature. “Desperation Road” (Lee Boudreaux Books, 2017) is an Amazon Best Book, Indie Next List selection and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers choice. “Rivers” (Simon & Schuster, 2013) made numerous “Best of the Year” lists and earned Smith the Mississippi Author Award for Fiction. His short fiction has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and his third full-length novel, “The Fighter,” is due out in April 2018.
“Columbus has given me that creative outlet,” Smith said Thursday by phone from Oxford. “Ten years and three novels, and one novel to come — that has benefited from me living and working and being part of the community in Columbus. I can’t overstate how important it’s been to me and how important it’s been to my family.”
Oxford has long been a draw for writers. The home of Faulkner has attracted others including Willie Morris, John Grisham and Larry Brown. The city boasts the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, hosts major literary and Southern studies conferences and is home to Square Books, Publishers Weekly 2013 Bookstore of the Year.
As Smith’s book signings and readings have taken him on the road in recent years, and frequently to Oxford, he’s discovered a community of fellow writers and friends there in Lafayette County.
“And the people at Square Books have been fantastic to me,” said Smith. “They’re really supportive of my work. It’s very nice to be close to a group of publishing writers and people who are very close to that.”
Author Deborah Johnson of Columbus, recipient of the 2015 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, describes Smith as “a fine, fine writer,” one she always enjoys talking shop with. “If we have to lose him, I’m glad to lose him to Oxford because it’s just such a cool place to be if you’re a writer — but I’m really going to miss him here.”
Not a final farewell
Even as Smith settles into a new home, he maintains a full schedule. Travel continues for “Desperation Road,” and he looks forward to participating in the Mississippi Book Festival in August as well as MUW’s Eudora Welty Writers’ Symposium this fall. Along with upcoming engagements in Georgia, Tennessee and Louisiana, he’s also been invited to take part in Australia’s International Literary Festival in early 2018.
“I’ll still be in and out of Columbus,” said Smith, who continues to teach for MUW.
“We’ll miss that blue house,” he said of the northside home he and Sabrea painstakingly restored. “That house has been special to us, and we enjoyed being a part of renovating downtown Columbus and watching our neighborhood get better and better.”
Columbus is a great town, he added, one where the Smiths have made a lot of friends and good memories, and look forward to making more.
“I think Oxford and Columbus have so many great characteristics, and they fit the personality of our family. I feel fortunate to get to be a part of both of them.”
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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