Dennis smith author interview
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Well-known St Andrews lifeguards double life as prolific novelist
Dennis Smith has been the resident lifeguard and swimming coach at St Andrews East Sands Leisure Centre for 35 years.
He even met his wife there, when they were just 23 and
She came in with her cousins, to the pool, recalls Dennis, She took part in one of my aqua aerobics classes – I was about kvartet stone lighter back then! And she just heckled me from the back.
It was fun and games!
Now the pair have two daughters, aged 19 and 16, and Dennis has helped teach hundreds more of the children in St Andrews how to swim, or be a rookie lifeguard.
But despite being a familiar face to many swimmers and parents in the Fife town, Dennis has a whole other life off the poolside as an author under pseudonym Robyn Smythe.
Its a bit of a Batman/Bruce Wayne thing, chuckles the St Andrews native as we meet at the leisure centre on his break.
I’ve always been interested in writing, going bac
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The New Yorker, August 29, P. 18
Talk interview with Fireman Dennis E. Smith, who is working on an M.A. in English, & who is with Engine Company 82 in the south Bronx. One Sunday a while back, a piece by Joyce Carol Oates called "The Formidable W.B. Yeats" appeared in the "Times Book Review". Smith wrote a letter, which was later printed in the "Book Review", that took issue with some of the points made in the Oates piece. Smith is interested in Yeats as a part of the Irish tradition. He feels that Irishness as an"ethnic identification is important in today's world." Smith had quit highschool at 15, worked, joined the Air Force in Nevada, where he passed his high-school-equivalency examination, & in joined the Fire Dept. full time. He simultaneously began part-time work on a B.S. in English at N.Y.U. Most of the firemen in the company are white, but the neighborhood is half-black, half-Puerto Rican. It is in the 41st Police Pre
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Dennis Smith
As a Guest
NYC Firefighters Share Memories From Ground Zero
Firefighter Ken Haskell was off duty on Sept. 11, , when his two brothers, also firefighters, died in the World Trade Center. Haskells story of searching the rubble for his brothers bodies is included in A Decade of Hope: Stories of Grief and Endurance from 9/11 Families and Friends.
Writer and Retired N.Y.C. Firefighter Dennis Smith
Writer and retired New York city firefighter Dennis Smith arrived at the site of the World Trade Center towers on the day of the attacks to volunteer with the rescue effort. His new book Report from Ground Zero (Viking) is composed of first-person testimony of rescuers who were there when the towers were attacked and fell, and who helped in the efforts afterwards. Smith spent 18 years with the fire department. He is the author of nine books, including the bestseller Report from Engine Co. 82 about his years in the citys most dangerous and active firehouse.