Mary-Ann Tirone Smith

Mary-Ann Tirone Smith was born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut and has lived in Connecticut all her life except for the two years she served as a Peace Corps volunteer on Mt. Cameroon.

 

Smith has published eight novels: 

 

THE BOOK OF PHOEBE, 1985;

LAMENT FOR A SILVER-EYED WOMAN, 1987;

THE PORT OF MISSING MEN, 1989;

MASTERS OF ILLUSION, 1994;

AN AMERICAN KILLING, 1998;

and the Poppy Rice Mysteries (LOVE HER MADLY, 2000, SHE’S NOT THERE, 2002, and SHE SMILED SWEETLY, 2004). 

 

Her memoir, GIRLS OF TENDER AGE, was published in 2006.  These books have been reprinted in seven foreign languages. GIRLS OF TENDER AGE is presently under option for a film.  Smith has had short fiction and essays in collections, and written book reviews for The New York Times, the Hartford Courant, the Boston Globe and others.

 

She has taught fiction writing at Fairfield University and participated in writing seminars throughout the country.  In March 2001, she was guest teacher-writer at the University of Ireland and on the Aran Islands.

 

Smith is one of one hundred writers who contributed to a collection called, DIRTY WORDS:  A LITERARY ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SEX, published this month.  (It is R-rated rather than X, and according to Elle Magazine, “…it is wicked fun to read.”)

 

She collaborated with her son Jere Smith on her newest novel,  DIRTY WATER: A RED SOX MYSTERY, published in October, 2008.

 

Smith is now working on a Civil War novel.