Patricia Smith is the author of the novel The Year of Needy Girls, a 2018 Lambda Literary Award finalist. She has been teaching American Literature and Creative Writing at the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School since 2006. A native New Englander, she received her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her nonfiction has appeared in several anthologies, most recently Writing through the Apocalypse: Prose and Poetry from the Pandemic. Her short fiction and nonfiction have also appeared in various literary magazines, including Dirty Spoon, salon, Hippocampus, Feels Blind Literary, Parhelion, and several others. She lives in Chester, VA with her wife.