Tara Bray Smith (born September 1970) is an American author. She has produced the books ''West of Then: A Mother, a Daughter, and a Journey Past Paradise'' (2004) and ''Betwixt'' (2007).

Early years and career

Smith was born and grew up in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

. She graduated from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

and received a master's in non-fiction writing from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

.Tara Smith, Thomas Struth
(2007-04-08). ''New York Times''. Retrieved 2015-01-24. Her first book was a

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

, ''West of Then: A Mother, a Daughter, and a Journey Past Paradise'', published in 2004. It tells the story of her actual and metaphorical search for her drug-addicted mother, as well as the history of her mother's family in Hawaii, rooted in the wealth and subsequent decline of 19th-century

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

s. Smith also wrote an article about Hawaii that appeared in ''

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...

77: What We Think of America'' (2002). Smith made her debut as a

young adult A young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages of human development significantly influencing the definition of ...

author with her second book, the teen novel ''Betwixt'' (2007), which became the basis for a

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

for

The CW Television Network ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

, but was never turned into a series. The proposed series, called ''Betwixt'' and then ''Changelings'', would have starred three teenagers (

Jessy Schram Jessica Schram (born January 15, 1986) is an American actress, model and singer. Her most notable roles include Hannah Griffith in ''Veronica Mars'', Rachel Seybolt in ''Life'', Karen Nadler in '' Falling Skies'' and Cinderella/Ashley Boyd in ' ...

Allison Miller Allison Miller is an American actress. She is best known for playing Michelle Benjamin on the NBC series '' Kings'', Skye Tate on the Fox series '' Terra Nova'', and Carrie on the NBC series ''Go On''. She starred as Laura Larson on the Syfy tel ...

and

Josh Henderson Joshua Baret Henderson (born October 25, 1981) is an American actor, model, and singer. Henderson is best known for his lead role as John Ross Ewing III in the TNT revival of ''Dallas'' (2012–2014). He played Austin McCann on the ABC television ...

) who find out they are "changelings" who have the ability to protect the world from evil.

Personal life

Smith married the German photographer

Thomas Struth Thomas Struth (born 11 October 1954) is a German photographer who is best known for his ''Museum Photographs'' series, family portraits and black and white photographs of the streets of Düsseldorf and New York taken in the 1970s. Struth lives ...

in 2007. She lives in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

.Tara Bray Smith: About the Author
" Hachette Book Group. Retrieved 2015-01-24.

References

External links

Tara Bray Smith (Official Site)

Betwixt (official site)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Tara Bray Dartmouth College alumni Writers from Hawaii Columbia University School of the Arts alumni Living people 1970 births American women writers 21st-century American women