 Smith is writing two operas, one about Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses and their competing visions for New York City (a project with composer Judd Greenstein and video artist Joshua Frankel) and the other, with composer Gregory Spears, about slavery's legacy.Smith lives in Princeton, NJ with her husband, Raphael Allison, and their three children.Allison is an assistant professor of literature at Bard College.