Cherry Smyth is an Irish poet, born in Ballymoney, County Antrim and raised in Portstewart. She has written two collections of poetry, a poetry pamphlet as well as a book, essays and reviews on contemporary visual arts. She has also published short fiction.

Her debut poetry collection, 'When the Lights Go Up' was published by Lagan Press, 2001. Her anthology of women prisoners' writing, 'A Strong Voice in a Small Space', Cherry Picking Press, 2002, won the Raymond Williams Community Publishing Award in 2003.

A poetry pamphlet, 'The Future of Something Delicate' was published by Smith/Doorstop, 2005. A second collection called 'One Wanted Thing' (Lagan Press) appeared in 2006.

Her poems have been published in 'Breaking the Skin', an anthology of Irish poets, Black Mountain Press, 2002, the Apples and Snakes Anthology, 'Velocity', 2003, 'Magnetic North', The Verbal Arts Centre, 2006.

New poems have been published in various magazines including 'The North', 'The Shop', 'Staple', 'Magma' and 'Poetry Ireland Review'. She was a prize-winner in the Tonbridge Poetry Competition, 2006 and the London Writers' Competition, 2007.

Her short fiction has been published in many journals and anthologies including Blithe House Quarterly, Summer, 2006, Scealta, Short Stories by Irish Women, Telegram Books, 2006, Chroma, Queer Literary Journal, 2004, 2006, Tears in the Fence, Vol. 35, 2003, The Anchor Book of New Irish Writing, 2000, and 'Hers: brilliant new fiction', Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1999.

She also writes for visual art magazines: Modern Painters, Art Monthly, Art Review and Circa. She has written essays on Jane and Louise Wilson, Orla Barry, Salla Tykka and Dirk Braeckman, among others. She was a visiting critic at Braziers International Art Workshop, at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Castello, Spain and at the Jan Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht in 2005. She was a curatorial adviser for 'Axis' online showcase, Open Frequency in 2006. An essay on photographer Thomas Flechtner was published in a book on his work, 'Bloom', Lars Muller Publications, 2007.

Cherry Smyth is the poetry editor of Brand literary magazine www.brandliterarymagazine.co.uk

She has been teaching writing poetry in the Creative Writing Department of the University of Greenwich since 2004.

Her influences include Li Po, Wislawa Szymborksa, Clarice Lispector, Helene Cixous, Anne Carson and Mark Doty.