Liz Smith
She/Her
writing to understand the emotional truths in our layered lives
Writer
I write from lived experience about the quiet moments where ordinary life shifts, tracing the terrain of family, identity, and becoming — and the harder journeys carried by people and communities pushed to the margins.
Storyteller
I explore rupture, desire, nature, and midlife transformation.
My hope is that my writing brings greater empathy to ourselves, one another, and the world we inhabit.
Innovator
I write to make room for the stories that live beneath the surface of ordinary life.
I hope my work opens small doors of recognition — places where readers feel seen, accompanied, or understood.
About me
I’m a mother, daughter, sister, friend, and a South African–born writer who has also called the north of England, southern Ontario, and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia home. These days, I live in Ottawa, where I’m a soon‑to‑be retired federal public servant. My work has always involved listening closely to people’s stories — the quiet ones, the complicated ones, the ones that shift the way you see the world.
Blog
Hello world!
October 2026
Welcome to my little corner of the web! Launching this website feels a little like opening the door to a room I’ve been building quietly for years — a place where poems, projects, and the early chapters of my novel can finally sit together and breathe. I’ve spent most of my life listening to complicated stories, both in my work and in my own becoming, and writing has become the way I hold the emotional truth of those lives. Whether I’m shaping a poem or following Mel Swanlee north into the heart of her reckoning, I’m drawn to the moments where ordinary life tilts, revealing something fragile, fierce, or unexpectedly human.
As I begin sharing my work — the poems finding their way into the world, the novel arriving in 2027, and PoetryWorks Studio slowly taking shape — my hope is simple: that these pieces offer recognition, empathy, and a sense of companionship for anyone navigating their own messy, beautiful story. Thank you for being here at the beginning. There’s so much more to come.