Andrew William Smith

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1 year 49 weeks

Biographical

Andrew William Smith (aka Andy Smith) got his start in peace activism, music journalism, and independent radio as a high school student in suburban Detroit in the mid-1980s. After graduating from Wayne State University in 1994 with a BA in English, he moved from Michigan to Tennessee to start a rural land cooperative, raise a daughter, attend graduate school at Middle Tennessee State University, and begin his career as a college writing instructor. Around 2005, with a full-time teaching gig secured to teach freshman comp at Tennessee Tech, Andy embraced rock journalism and radio with the gusto of his youth. Today, he’s an editor at the pop-culture webzine Interference.com and hosts a weekly radio show on WTTU 88.5 FM every Monday night called “Teacher on the Radio.” Each summer, he is the “dean” of The Academy, a workshop tent at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. Knowing that home is where he hangs his hat, Andy splits his time between his next-to-campus apartment in Cookeville, hotel rooms, couches, and tents near shows and festivals he’s traveled to, and the land-trust in Liberty, Tennessee, which he shares with his wife Viva, numerous land-mates, and lots of animals.