Obediah Michael Smith was born in The Bahamas. He has published twenty books of poetry. He has lived in Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica, Paris and he has spent the last three years in ten countries in Africa. He attended Memphis State University and Fisk University. He has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Speech and Drama. At the University of Miami and at UWI, Cave Hill, Barbados, he attended writers’ workshops conducted by Lorna Goodison, Earl Lovelace, Grace Nichols, Merle Collins, and Mervyn Morris.