Novels, stories, essays, etc.

“Highly entertaining…Smith is fascinating.”

—The New York Times

Stack of seven large hardcover books on a rustic wooden table in a cozy log cabin interior, with large windows showing trees outside. The books have titles including 'Return to Valetto,' 'The Last Painting of Sara de Vos,' 'The Electric Hotel,' 'Bright and Distant Shores,' 'The Beautiful Miscellaneous,' and 'The Mercury Visions of.'
Cover of Atlantic Fiction Issue 2006 with a woman sitting on a dock, fishing rod in hand, and a small boat in the background.

STORIES
Although I am mostly a novelist, occasionally I publish short stories.
Here are a few:

Cover page with the title 'The New York Times' in black Gothic font and the subtitle 'Book Review' in bold.
A man wearing glasses and a dark suit stands outside a historic theater with a marquee displaying 'Wages of Fear, The Favourite,' in front of the Hollywood Theatre in Los Angeles.

ESSAYS & BOOK REVIEWS

NOVELS
I’m the author of six novels, including The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, a New York Times bestseller and a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. Sold into more than a dozen countries, the novel was chosen as a best book of 2016 by Amazon, Slate, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Kirkus Reviews. In Australia, the novel won the Fiction Indie Book of the Year Award from the Independent Booksellers Association and was named the Literary Fiction Book of the Year as part of the Australian Book Industry Awards. Take a deeper dive on my author website.

SELECT INTERVIEWS, PROFILES, AND REVIEWS OF MY WORK

Logo for the National Endowment for the Arts featuring white text on a black background with a small red, white, and blue stripe and the website arts.gov at the bottom.

FELLOWSHIPS & AWARDS

  • Fellowships: National Endowment for the Arts, Australia Council for the Arts (Creative Australia), Dobie Paisano Fellowship

  • Texas Institute of Letters: Jesse Jones Best Book Award (2024) and Steven Turner Award for Best Work of First Fiction (2007)

  • Fiction Book of the Year, Australian Independent Booksellers (2017)

  • Literary Fiction Book of the Year, Australian Book Industry Awards (2017)

  • Gulf Coast Fiction Prize (2004)

  • Sherwood Anderson Fiction Prize (2002)

  • Shortlists: Christina Stead Prize for Fiction (NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, Australia), The Age Book of the Year, Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction (Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, Australia)

  • Longlists: International Dublin Literary Award, ARA Historical Novel Prize in Australia, Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, Walter Scott Prize