Bill Smoot grew up in Maysville, Kentucky, and attended Purdue University where he was editor of the campus newspaper, The Purdue Exponent. Because of the paper’s editorial policies in support of black student demands and against the war in Vietnam, he was fired from that position by university president and then reinstated when the campus rose up in protest over the firing. He went on to graduate school at Northwestern University, where he received a PhD in philosophy.

     He has taught for five decades at levels ranging from sixth grade to university students. He currently teaches courses in Mount Tamalpais College at San Quentin and the Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning at UC-Berkeley. His essays and short stories have appeared in such publications as The Nation, Literary Review, Crab Orchard Review, Ninth Letter, Crab Creek Review, Western Humanities Review, Narrative, Medium, and Salon.com. He is the author of Conversations with Great Teachers. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his dog Artemis.

     Some of my interviews include these: https://iupress.org/connect/blog/author-... [2]

https://mudseasonreview.com/2022/11/ritu... [3]

https://www.seekthejoypodcast.com/joy-co... [4]