Michael Smith is the author of two novels and a novella - Giro Playboy, Unreal City, and Shorty Loves Wing Wong, all p ublished by Faber & Faber - as well as various pieces for Esquire, Vice, Dazed & Confused, Port and the Guardian, but his writing also extends off the printed page and into other disciplines.

He held a regular slot on BBC2’s Culture Show for many years and wrote and presented two series for BBC4 - Citizen Smith, about the paradoxes of Englishness, and Drivetime, a dystopian road trip around the country.

Like his books, his TV work was written in an elliptical, lyrical style, something he explored further with various short, experimental, independently produced films he calls his “video-poems” - Lost in London and Stranger on the Shore - which have been screened at the National Film Theatre, the Barbican and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Arts.

He has also collaborated on several musical/spoken word projects, notably an album he made with Andrew Weatherall for Unreal City, which they performed together live at Glastonbury, Port Eliot, the Social and the NFT amongst others. He’s currently working on a similar musical/spoken project with Steve Queralt from the band Ride.

A few years ago he left London for St Leonards-on-Sea to become a father, and help set up a pub - The Marina Fountain - with his partner. He’s currently working on a third novel.