Brent L. Smith is the author of Pipe Dreams on Pico and his latest Gambling Hell in No Time (Far West Press, TBA).
He received his MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in Boulder, Colorado under the tutelage of Penny Arcade, DJ Spooky, Lydia Lunch, Thurston Moore, Daniel Pinchbeck & Anne Waldman.
In 2012, Brent moved back to his native Los Angeles where he mopped floors and served cocktails at the celebrity haunt and Hollywood speakeasy Harvard & Stone. He was a screenwriter for a short time at Jesse Dylan’s production house, Wondros. He worked bars on and off, writing the novella Edendale Society and a book of poems, Nation of Dirty Assholes.
For nearly a decade, Brent was senior contributing writer for Flaunt Magazine & music editor for Janky Smooth, covering the 2010s garage rock wave and traversing the occult dimensions of Hollywood. As copy editor, his recent projects include Ritual by Damien Echols and The Tibetan Book of the Dead for Beginners. He’s been commissioned to write the authorized biography of Cory Wells, singer of the 70s rock band Three Dog Night.
Brent’s mother is UFO researcher/ hypnotherapist Yvonne Smith, and his upbringing has informed the writing he’s done on the topics of esoterica, psychonautics, and American mythos.