A Wound That Never Heals

The recently-released anthology, Male Pattern Violence (CultureCult Press, 2026), contains my story, “The Gyrification of Violence.” Edited by the press’s founder, Jay Chakravarti, the story is a reprint-inclusion originally appearing in Vastarien: A Literary Journal (lamentably on indefinite hiatus, but hopefully in some dark hibernation).

“The Third of May 1808,” Francisco Goya (1814)

Male Pattern Violence houses thirty-five stories from an eclectic selection of contributors. “From the housing projects of France to the fishing villages of Bangladesh, from Victorian England to the digital wastelands of social media moderation, Male Pattern Violence traces the architecture of male violence: not as aberrations, but as a pattern, perpetuated consciously or otherwise, since time immemorial.” 

“The Third of May 1808,” Francisco Goya (1814)

As for my own offering, the editor’s intro follows: “A single punch in a middle-school hallway, then decades of aftershocks. [Clint] Smith dissects male violence not as spectacle, but as a wound that never heals.”

“Beneath the Surface” of BLACKGUM LAKE: a Conversation with Ryan Trares of the Daily Journal

I’m grateful to senior reporter and columnist, Ryan Trares, for providing his platform with the Daily Journal to share our discussion about my recently-released novella, The Sacraments of Blackgum Lake. “Smith has channeled his imagination into a new novel. The Sacraments of Blackgum Lake weaves together dark and foreboding waters, personal struggles and the legend of John Dillinger into a compelling page-turner.”

Read the full interview in the Friday June 19, 2026 edition of the Daily Journal.