Roger Bernard Smith was born in Rochester, New York, in 1939. He grew up on a fruit and dairy farm in rural Wayne County, studied painting at The Art Student’s League in New York and the San Francisco Art Institute. He earned the Associate of Arts Degree from Monroe Community College, Rochester, New York.

Roger has kept a daily journal since 1952, his freshman year in high school. He teaches journaling at the Mohawk Valley Institute for Learning in Retirement (MVILR) at SUNY-IT in Utica, New York, and with inmates in Utica area prisons. He lives in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains

His poems and stories have appeared in Beginnings Magazine, State Street Press, Tiger’s Eye Journal, Love After 70, Wising-up Press Anthology, The Sun Magazine, Coming Together Anthology, the Center for Positive Sexuality, Exercise Bowling Journal, and The Body Attacks Itself Journal.

In answer to our question of why he writes, Roger responded:

“Writing is propelled by angst, euphoria, and love of language. Creating images through words is too compelling an urge to ignore. If there are a million reasons not to write, they are overshadowed by events and my reaction to them resulting in the need to write—that’s what puts me at my desk, attempting to deal with the depth of feeling, and/or the numbness that being a human on Earth generates.”

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