Ralph F Smith

When Ralph F. Smith was 13 years old his room teacher read the students David Copperfield. Ralph immediately became a fan of Dickens, rereading all his fiction every decade. In the 1970s, he wrote a MA thesis on Dickens's portrayal of the Victorian Underworld. Later, he registered in a PhD program at the University of Ottawa and wrote a dissertation on Dickens's portrayal and metaphoric use of fever. An article derived from this dissertation appeared in Literature and Medicine in 2015. Ralph...See more

When Ralph F. Smith was 13 years old his room teacher read the students David Copperfield. Ralph immediately became a fan of Dickens, rereading all his fiction every decade. In the 1970s, he wrote a MA thesis on Dickens's portrayal of the Victorian Underworld. Later, he registered in a PhD program at the University of Ottawa and wrote a dissertation on Dickens's portrayal and metaphoric use of fever. An article derived from this dissertation appeared in Literature and Medicine in 2015. Ralph also worked as a policy director for the Governments of Saskatchewan and Canada, receiving the Queen Elizabeth Golden Jubilee Medal for his work on homelessness. Ralph has been writing articles, short stories, poetry, and novels for decades. His previously published novels are Bright Deep (2013), Concession Street Secrets (2019), and Twitch: The Foundling's Quest (2021). His poems and stories have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. He has been living in Ottawa since 1987, has two children, three stepchildren, and is married to Dr. Fionnuala O'Kelly. See less