A native of Mabou, Cape Breton, to which he has returned Ray Smith lived in Montreal for forty years, where he taught English literature at Dawson College. He is the author of, among others, A Night at the Opera (winner of the 1992 Qspell Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction), Cape Breton is the Thought-Control Centre of Canada, Century, and Most recently, The Flush of Victory: Jack Bottomly Among the Virgins, all published by Biblioasis.