Roadside Epiphanies has garnered much praise. Pulitzer Prize nominee Susan Tepper writes, "This new book of poems by Michael Dwayne Smith is an intense yet down to earth read, infused with mysticism, love, humor and the search for what is crucial to decent existence ... A highly recommended book." Jeffrey Alfier, Co-editor of Blue Horse Press and winner of the Kithara Book Prize writes: "He renders to us the world at large - the universe in a cholla needle, something of Blake's world in a grain of sand. There is much to admire in the depth and breadth of Smith's lines. His striking and eloquent control of language and image make this collection of poems a delight to behold."

Reviews:

"From an unswerving devotion to poetry, Michael Dwayne Smith's images amplify outward from the Mojave desert to the sordid metropolis of Los Angeles, and on up into California's northern regions. But Roadside Epiphanies is far from parochial. With clarity and keen control of sentiment, Smith is mindful of the need to express poignant truth in the simple, yet pungent smell of cigarettes in a young girl's tangled hair, or in "any space / alive with emptiness." He renders to us the world at large - the universe in a cholla needle, something of Blake's world in a grain of sand. There is much to admire in the depth and breadth of Smith's lines. His striking and eloquent control of language and image make this collection of poems a delight to behold."
--Jeffrey Alfier, Co-editor of Blue Horse Press, author of Fugue for a Desert Mountain, 2014 winner of the Kithara Book Prize

"Bristling with haunting images."--Kyle Hemmings, author of Future Wars

"These poems feel inevitable, inspired, as though they had to be written. The spare, stunning language, the ragged honesty of memory, the small, deft silences between lines, will etch images you'll swear are your own secrets uttered aloud."--Ricki Mandeville, author of A Thin Strand of Lights

"Poet, writer, visionary, thinker, creative catalyst--there are not enough words to describe the power of this man's ideas unleashed."--Sheika Lugtu, author of OMGCow
About the Author:

Michael Dwayne Smith lives near a ghost town in the Mojave Desert with his family and rescued animals. He's the recipient of both a Hinderaker Award for poetry and a Polonsky Prize for fiction; recent nominations include Sundress Best of the Net, the StorySouth Million Writers Award, and two nominations for the Pushcart Prize. His poetry and prose appears in nearly two hundred publications, such as The Cortland Review, burntdistrict, Word Riot, New World Writing, WhiskeyPaper, Gravel, FRiGG, Monkeybicycle, Chiron Review, Skidrow Penthouse, Heron Tree, Cholla Needles and numerous anthologies. When not teaching or writing, he is publisher/editor of Mojave River Press and Mojave River Review (check out MojaveRiverPress.com).