Emily Sayre Smith

EMILY SAYRE SMITH grew up in Texas and Arizona, spent two years in London, worked as a dancer wandering around the US for a few years, settled in NYC for sixteen years, and in LA for twenty. She currently lives in Palm Springs, CA.

Hers has been a strange and wandering career path, starting life as a classically trained ballet dancer, then gym owner, construction manager, and now author. She took a gun out of her mouth in April of 1998 and went to an AA meeting. It stuck, so she’s here. “I can’t tell you how liberating it is not to kill yourself.”

Emily stumbled back into writing in one day’s desperate attempt to put off cleaning house. She hates cleaning house but has rediscovered a love of writing. “I’ve been writing in my head my whole life. I just didn’t realize what I was doing.”

Smartass: Memoir of a Mouthy Girl is her first book. She’s halfway through the follow-up to Smartass, which as yet is untitled. Sober twenty-six years . . . it took a village and some good therapy. She really needs a housekeeper, but is afraid to break the spell.