He is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, including Voices from a Farther Room (1992), which was nominated for the Governor General’s Award. In 1989 he won The Malahat Review’s Long Poem Prize, and he was awarded the Atlantic Poetry Prize for 2000’s The Killed. In additional, he has served as the President of the League of Canadian Poets, and as Chair of the Public Lending Right Commission of Canada. Smith currently teaches English and Creative Writing at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and splits his time between there and Paris France.