Smith, Craig 1950-

PERSONAL:

Born 1950, in Terre Haute, IN; married; wife's name Martha. Education: Southern Illinois University, Ph.D., 1988.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Lucerne, Switzerland. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Southern Illinois University Press, P.O. Box 3697, Carbondale, IL 62902-3697.

CAREER:

Writer. Former professor at Arkansas State University and University of Northern Colorado.

WRITINGS:

Silent She Sleeps, Heinemann (London, England), 1997, revised and published as The Whisper of Leaves, Southern Illinois University Press (Carbondale, IL), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS:

Craig Smith is an American-born novelist who resides in Lucerne, Switzerland. Smith received his Ph.D. in English from Southern Illinois University and also taught English at Arkansas State University and the University of Northern Colorado before moving abroad with his wife, Martha. Over the course of his career as a writer, Smith developed carpal tunnel syndrome, which affected his ability to write. The condition allows him to shake hands and even drive a car, but writing for hours on end, as many writers do, was no longer possible. Smith overcame this obstacle by using a sophisticated voice-recording device attached to his computer.

Upon leaving the United States, Smith did not forget his memories of his university days at Southern Illinois University. His American debut novel, The Whisper of Leaves, takes place on the campus of a fictitious university modeled closely after his alma mater. Called a "dark, cat-and-mouse thriller" by a critic in Publishers Weekly, the story features a new university professor learning of her birth mother's murder near the campus and her birth father's prison term resulting from the murder charge twenty years ago. When strange messages start appearing similar to the message carved onto the dead woman's body, the race to find the serial killer begins. A Kirkus Reviews contributor balanced the positive and the negative in the novel. The critic was concerned that the novel "stretches credibility at every turn," but went on to praise Smith by saying that he "delineates his large cast concisely and writes with verve and style about campus life."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2002, review of The Whisper of Leaves, p. 1083.

Publishers Weekly, August 26, 2006, review of The Whisper of Leaves, p. 48.

ONLINE

Pulse,http://newshound.de.siu.edu/pulse/ (April 24, 2006), author profile.

Southern Illinois University Press Web site,http://www.siu.edu/~siupress/ March 27, 2006), author profile.