Crystal Simone Smith is the author of 3 poetry chapbooks. In 2019, she won the North Carolina Poetry Society Bloodroot Haiku Award. Her work has appeared in numerous journals, including Prairie Schooner, POETRY Magazine, Crab Orchard Review, Frogpond, and Modern Haiku. Her latest book, RUNAGATE: SONGS OF FREEDOM BOUND, a collection of Japanese forms of poetry written in response to slave artifacts including ads for runaway slaves, will be published by Duke University Press in Spring 2025.