C. Kevin Smith was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Topanga, California. He studied French literature at California State University, Northridge and the University of California, Santa Barbara. For two years he taught English at the University of Bordeaux. In 1995 the French government awarded him a fellowship to spend a year in Paris conducting research for his doctoral dissertation, which treats the subject of public monuments in Paris and their literary representations. He received a Ph.D in 1996 from Princeton University. After holding teaching positions at the University of Washington (Seattle) and the George Washington University (Washington, D.C.), he decided to leave academia to pursue his lifelong dream of being a writer. In 1999 he moved with his partner Jeff Mallory to Monterey, California, where for two years he wrote reviews and feature articles for the Monterey County Weekly and other publications. He presently lives in Big Sur, where he is working on a novel and with his partner is live-in caretaker for the artist Emile Norman. C. Kevin Smith is also devoted to classical music. He serves on the board of Chamber Music Monterey Bay and is an avid amateur pianist.

A stone sculpture gives shape to a love of beauty, a knowledge of
suffering, a dream of flight.

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