Joshua Smith

is a poet who lives in Washington, D.C., where he curates the D.C. Arts Center Poetry Series. He is the author of By (Non Plus Ultra, 2021). His work can be found in Word For/Word, Yalobusha Review, TIMBER, Otoliths, Nokturno, A) Glimpse) Of), Angry Old Man Magazine, Futures Trading, and The Gravity of the Thing. He may be reached at jsmith@dcartscenter.org.

Praise for By

Josh Bell, author of No Planets Strike and Senior Lecturer on Poetry at Harvard University:

Sometimes it’s like we’re in a lab, looking at a language isolated on slides. Sometimes we’re a universe away, looking at the language through a telescope, catching it in small events. By is a book of economy, humor and vision. I have already used more words, describing it, than it itself contains. And am no nearer to explaining away the stillness at the center of it.

Aram Saroyan, author of Complete Minimal Poems:

One or two words wrestle and fall apart before they quite win the point. Yet something stares out at you from these smashed-up vowels and consonants, like a traffic accident, or a Chamberlain sculpture, an eye or an oh.

Johanna Drucker, author of Graphesis: Visual Forms of Knowledge Production and Professor of Bibliographical Studies at University of California, Los Angeles:

Broken, partial, fractured, distorted—is this poetry in the age of CAPTCHA? In thirty-seven words, Joshua Smith makes us feel the possibilities—and vulnerabilities—of poetic language in contemporary culture.