Danyel Smith is an accomplished, African-American magazine editor and journalist. She previously served as the editor-in-chief of Vibe, as well as an editor for the esteemed Billboard magazine, and was the first member of her ethnicity to do so.
Hailing from Oakland, California, Smith attended the University of Southern California, Berkeley and is a 2014 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. She now resides in Brooklyn, New York with her husband Elliott Wilson, also a journalist and magazine editor.
Smith began her career in 1989 as a freelance writer, columnist and critic in the San Francisco Bay Area at The San Francisco Bay Guardian and The East Bay Express. Today, she is best known for her celebrity interviews. Smith has contributed to several publications and media outlets including Elle, Time, Cosmopolitan, The New Yorker, CNN, Ebony, and NPR.
I’ll primarily be focusing on her first novel, More Like Wrestling (Crown, 2003) as it drew critical praise from several book reviewers. Additionally, I plan to include my take on her articles from The Undefeated — ESPN’s online publication that she contributes to as the “Culture Lead.” Her most recent piece, from 2018, was on gymnast Simone Biles.
To me, her writing style is unique because it hooks and draws the reader in, luring them to continue reading. Although I had zero interest in sports or anything athletic related, I enjoyed her commentary and interview style with Simone Biles. Her use of diction and syntax is unconventional and fresh. I also appreciated her inclusion of minority issues within the piece and how she explains the complications that come along with being black in the spotlight.
I’m extremely glad I chose Smith from the list of options because I highly resonate with and am inspired by her as an African-American female journalist. I look forward to reading her first novel in full and reporting to the class any nuances I find between her work as a journalist and her work as a literary author.
