Smarty Jones

What does it mean to discover that a reality you had once been sure was yours, was one that was both nonsensical, absurd, and cruel? And what does it mean to come to find a balanced sense of self in the aftermath of this realization? In her irreverent debut collection of essays, Blake Ciresa (aka Smarty Jones) holds up a funhouse mirror to the anxieties of coming of age: Smarty Jones constructs a wonderfully absurd world rife with race horses, belonging, sequined Justice t-shirts, womanhood, and Faye Dunaway.

Published in the Spring 2025 Collection.

Blake Ciresa

  • "Blake Ciresa’s SMARTY JONES is the lacerating memoir that every parent fears and every child recognizes. After her parents’ divorce, the writer careens from father to mother, from suburban houses to the dusty race tracks where her father works. A piece about surviving childhood, it vividly captures how every family is unhappy in their own way. The writing is precocious, formally playful, and mordantly funny."

    WENDY MACLEOD, “The House of Yes”

  • "Sinister and slyly funny, Smarty Jones reads like an autopsy of adolescence. Whether describing a day at the horse races or Mommie Dearest-induced panic attack, Blake Ciresa writes with startling precision. These formally inventive essays bristle with glitz and chintz: a world-weary racehorse, a puke-stained nightgown, a sequined shirt from Justice. Blake Ciresa’s prose shines in her ability to both render the moment and hover above it. These are essays you’ll want to read and read again, pinballing between horror and delight. Blake Ciresa is a writer of exceptional promise."

    JEN GALVEO, 2023-25 Kenyon Review Fiction Fellow

  • “Tender, wry, and incredibly perceptive, Ciresa’s writing is a gift. Each new phrase doubles as a twirl and a gut punch, moving us through narrative time and space with a masterful, firm hold on our attention. More than anything, Ciresa’s quick humor is unmatched, and I found myself deeply moved by the balance she struck between earnestness and levity throughout her work. Every way that she turns this story in her own hand sparkles; Blake Ciresa is a stunning new voice I can’t wait to read more of in the future.”

    LIV KANE, Iowa Arts Fellow, Gulfwater

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