Shane,+Margaret+Smith

Biographical Information:
Dates: 1944 - Dates in Ridgefield: 1970s  fiction, short stories, mentor for Young Writer's Institute (Hartford) A few good words from a teacher can mean a lot to a student. For Mary-Ann Tirone Smith, it meant a career. Ms. Smith is the author of a five novels, the most recent of which, //An American Killing//, has been widely acclaimed and has sold more than 160,000 copies. A Ridgefielder since 1970, Ms. Smith grew up in Hartford; her 1994 novel, //Masters of Illusion//, is about the famous 1944 Ringling Brothers circus fire there. One day at Hartford Public High School, an English teacher told her that "your writing flows like a river." Her reaction was both wonder and a determination to develop her talent. "Being raised a Catholic in the 50s meant you were always singing that damnable hymn, 'Oh Lord, I Am Not Worthy.' That to me was the human condition. Obviously I didn't like it since I was so thrilled and relieved to know that maybe I could do something well." The results began to appear in book form when her novel, //The Book of Phoebe//, appeared in 1985. There have been short stories, including ones about her Peace Corps experiences in Cameroon, and four more novels, including //Port of Missing Men//, whose title, but not plot, was inspired by a turn of the century resort on West Mountain. In her 30 years in town, Ms. Smith was active in a co-op preschool, the Norwalk River Project, and managing concession stands for Little League. Since 1991, Ms. Smith, who knows how a critical eye and a kind word can help a budding author, has been involved in the Young Writer's Institute, a Hartford-based program in which professional writers become mentors for promising writers from Hartford-area high schools. "That these writers are 15 does boggle the mind," she said of their talent. **Titles (partial): ** //The Book of Phoebe //, 1985 //Lament for a Silver-Eyed Woman, // 1987  //An American Killing: A Novel //, 1998  //Girls of a Tender Age: A Memoir //, 2006  //She Smiled Sweetly: A Poppy Rice Mystery, //<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">2004 <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: justify;">–Sources: Notable Ridgefielders–Jack Sanders; Amazon.com, author page