Her essay "Poor Teeth," for Aeon, was selected as notable in The Best American Essays 2015. Smarsh has taught creative writing and journalism at Washburn University, Columbia University and elsewhere. A former grant-writer and development director for social-service agencies serving at-risk youth and low-income families, she has helped lead institutional diversity movements on university campuses and within state government. Her debut book, In the Red, on the American working poor and her own turbulent upbringing in rural Kansas, is forthcoming from Scribner. She lives in Kansas and Texas.