Bruce Smith is the author of five books of poems, The Common Wages (1983), Silver and Information (National Poetry Series' Selection, 1985), Mercy Seat (1994), The Other Lover (2000), and Songs for Two Voices (2005). A Finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 2000, The Other Lover received the following citation: "The Other Lover offers such hindsight that the reader sees Bruce Smith's earlier volumes for the vivid, steady grace that always characterizes his work." That grace, most openly present in this new collection with a self-effacing yet brilliant formal variety, is indeed in the American grain, generous and utterly individual. If what he says is "occasional and true," it is always given the "ring of his conviction. It acquires permanence; it is universally true." Songs for Two Voices is "mesmerizing," "carnal yet fiercely intellectual, laid out with the self-confidence of a poet who can invoke Mozart and Coltrane, Anna Akhmatova and John Wayne, Teddy Roosevelt and Augustine in the same incendiary breath" (Editorial Reviews, Amazon.com).

He is a Guggenheim Fellow and has twice received grants from the NEA and the Massachusetts Arts Council. He teaches in the graduate writing program at Syracuse University and is currently working on a new book of poems, The Devotions, and a novel, Cry, Cry Baby.