Gregory Blake Smith holds an A.B. summa cum laude from Bowdoin College and an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His writing has earned numerous awards, including a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University and the George Bennett Fellowship at Phillips Exeter Academy, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bush Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board.

His short fiction has appeared in various literary journals, including The Kenyon Review, The Antioch Review, and StoryQuarterly, and has been reprinted in such anthologies as The Pushcart Prizes and The New Generation.

Smith is the author of three novels, The Devil in the Dooryard, The Divine Comedy of John Venner, which was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times, and the recently released The Madonna of Las Vegas.

Since 1987 he has taught American literature and creative writing at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, where he lives with his wife and daughter.