Dinitia Smith
Born	(1945-12-26) December 26, 1945 (age 78) Cumberland, Maryland, U.S.
Other names	Dinitia McCarthy
Occupations	Author filmmaker
Years active	1971–present
Spouse	David Nasaw ​ ( m. 1978)​
Children	2

Dinitia Smith (born December 26, 1945) is an American author and filmmaker.

Early life

Smith was born in Cumberland, Maryland, and raised primarily in Great Britain, where her father was a journalist. She came to the United States in 1959, and lived in New York City and Westchester. After graduating from Smith College, ^[1] she worked as a reporter for the Associated Press in New York. ^[2] She enrolled in the New York University Film School, and in 1971 obtained a Masters of Fine Arts.

Career

In 1971, she wrote and directed her first film, Passing Quietly Through, under her then-married name McCarthy. ^[3] That film was one of the first films by a woman to be chosen for the New York Film Festival. Smith continued to make documentaries, including some with American documentary filmmaker, David Grubin, ^[4] and also wrote several screenplays. ^[5] Her films have been shown at the Whitney Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. ^[6]

In 1975, Smith won an Emmy Award for a film she made for WNBC–TV. ^[7] She published her first novel, The Hard Rain, in 1980. Her second novel, Remember This, won her fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts ^[8] and the Ingram Merrill Foundation. ^[9] Her short fiction has been published in numerous literary journals. ^{[10] [11]}

Smith was also a contributing editor at New York magazine; ^[12] from 1995 to 2006 she worked for The New York Times, where she wrote about arts and intellectual trends and ideas. ^[13] Her third novel, The Illusionist, published in 1997, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. ^[14]

The Honeymoon, her biographical novel about the 19th century writer George Eliot, was published in 2016. The New York Times wrote that "Smith's enchanting account humanizes a figure renowned as much for her refutation of conventional female stereotypes and social limitations as for her genius for story and language". ^[15] A reviewer for The Washington Post called the book "the perfect example of when fictional storytelling about an eminent person is warranted". ^[16]

Smith's fifth novel, The Prince, ( Arcade Publishing, 2022) is a contemporary retelling of Henry James's The Golden Bowl. NPR called The Prince "a winner …a compelling story of sexual obsession and the expectations and tolerances of society.” ^[17] Novelist Lee Child wrote The Prince is “Beautiful, elegant and delicate.” ^[18] The National Book Review called the novel "deliciously satisfying." ^[19]

Smith has taught at Columbia University and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. ^[20]

Personal life

Smith has been married to historian and author David Nasaw since 1978. It is a second marriage for both. ^[21] They have two sons. ^{[22] [23]}

Bibliography

• The Hard Rain, Dial Press (1980) ISBN  9780803734098
• Remember This, Henry Holt & Co (1989) ISBN  9780805010367
• The Illusionist, Scribner (1997) ISBN  9780684843292
• The Honeymoon, Other Press (2016) ISBN  9781590517789
• The Prince, Arcade Publishing (March 2022) ISBN  9781950994199

References