Smartish Pace

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2023}}

{{Short description|American literary journal}}

{{Infobox magazine

|image_file=

|image_size=225px

|image_caption=16th issue. Cover by Patricia Orr, wife of poet Gregory Orr.

|company=Smartish Pace

|frequency =Annually

|paid_circulation=

|unpaid_circulation=

|total_circulation=1,100

|language=English

|category=Literary journal

|editor=Stephen Reichert

|firstdate=1999

|country=United States

|based = Baltimore, Maryland

|website={{URL|http://www.smartishpace.com}}

|issn=1532-3218

}}

Smartish Pace is a non-profit, independent literary journal based in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The magazine was founded in 1999 by Stephen Reichert{{cite journal|title=Pace setter|last=Permutt|first=Sam|date=April 2004 |url=http://archives.baltimoremagazine.net/monthly/2004/2004_04/bside/page1.htm|journal=Baltimore Magazine}}{{cite news|url= http://chronicle.com/cgi2-bin/printable.cgi?article=http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i11/11b00901.htm|title=Lines Online: Poetry Journals on the Web|work=The Chronicle of Higher Education|date=November 7, 2003|access-date=December 10, 2010}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cite news|url=

http://www.tiu.edu/tiu/publications/trinitymagazine/winter2000poetry|title=Poetry's Dead at Last But . . .|work=Trinity Magazine|date=Winter 2000|accessdate=December 10, 2010}} (authored by member of journal's staff, published in an alumni magazine) who was a University of Maryland School of Law student at the time. The name, Smartish Pace, originates from a tort case in which a horse carriage, which was travelling at "a smartish pace," ran over and killed a donkey.{{cite web|title=Davies v. Mann from Chapter 2|author=Miceli, Thomas|url=http://www.sup.org/economiclaw/?d=Cases&f=Chapter%202.htm|work=The Economic Approach to Law, 2nd ed.|date=Fall 2009|accessdate=December 10, 2010}} Smartish Pace has published poems by the following Pulitzer Prize or National Book Award winners: Carl Phillips, Martín Espada, Terrance Hayes, Rae Armantrout, Mark Doty, Natasha Trethewey, Philip Schultz, Claudia Emerson, Nathaniel Mackey, Ted Kooser, Paul Muldoon, Yusef Komunyakaa, Carl Dennis, Stephen Dunn, Mary Oliver, Andrew Hudgins, Henry Taylor, Gerald Stern, Maxine Kumin, and Anthony Hecht. The magazine has also debuted previously unpublished letters of Elizabeth Bishop and award-winning new translations of Tomas Tranströmer.[http://www.smartishpace.com/poet_index/ "Poets Index"] Smartish Pace Website, Retrieved December 10, 2010. When referencing places Pulitzer Prize winner Claudia Emerson had published, Newsweek called the journal "obscure".{{cite journal|title=Heroine by a Hairbreadth|last=Gates|first=David|date=June 12, 2006|url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/52309|journal=Newsweek}} As of Clifford Garstang's 2023 Literary Magazine Rankings, Smartish Pace was ranked one of the top ten poetry magazines in North America.{{cite web |last1=Garstang |first1=Clifford |date=22 December 2022 |title=2023 Literary Magazine Ranking–Poetry |url=https://cliffordgarstang.com/2023-literary-magazine-ranking-poetry/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230531112135/https://cliffordgarstang.com/2022-literary-magazine-ranking-poetry/ |archive-date=May 31, 2023 |access-date=17 November 2023 |website=cliffordgarstang.com |language=en}}

Smartish Pace’s website is the home of Poets Q & A, the first interactive poetry forum on the internet, where readers ask questions of well-known poets.{{cite web|title=Literary MagNet|author=Larimer, Kevin |url=http://www.pw.org/content/literary_magnet_31|work=Poets & Writers|date=May–June 2003|accessdate=December 10, 2010}} Past poets who have participated in Poets Q & A include Carl Phillips, Sherman Alexie, Jorie Graham, Robert Creeley, Eavan Boland, Mark Doty, Robert Hass, Rae Armantrout, Carl Dennis, Stephen Dunn, Bob Hicok, Campbell McGrath, Robert Pinsky, Elizabeth Spires, and David Wojahn.

Smartish Pace was named "Best Poetry Journal" in 2007 by the Baltimore City Paper.{{cite news|url=http://www.citypaper.com/bob/story.asp?id=14509|title=Baltimore Living: Best Poetry Journal|work=Baltimore City Paper|date=September 19, 2007|accessdate=December 10, 2010}}