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Smartass: Memoir of a Mouthy Girl
Perfect for anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes of the ballet world, a rousing memoir of a brash young ballerina from a dysfunctional family who achieves her greatest dream only to realize—as she begins to find success—that she’s gay.
With a priest for a father and a magician for a mother, Emily Sayre Smith was always going to have an interesting life—for better and for worse. Here, she recounts what it was like coming of age in Texas and Arizona in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s in a decidedly dysfunctional family.
To escape her turbulent family life, Emily throws herself into her ballet classes, where she can dance out the anxiety in her body and take refuge in fantasy worlds. Driven by the dream of being a ballerina, she earns scholarships and lead roles, studies in London for two years, and eventually lands back in Tucson, where she joins a fledgling ballet company and falls in love—with a woman and with marijuana.
Join Emily as she survives her troubled family, hangs out with dance royalty, saves Martha Graham, meets the Queen of England, slings hash in a diner, discovers her sexuality, and tries to figure out how it’s all going fit together in her ballerina world in this story of a brave and sometimes bumbling girl charging her way through life.
With a priest for a father and a magician for a mother, Emily Sayre Smith was always going to have an interesting life—for better and for worse. Here, she recounts what it was like coming of age in Texas and Arizona in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s in a decidedly dysfunctional family.
To escape her turbulent family life, Emily throws herself into her ballet classes, where she can dance out the anxiety in her body and take refuge in fantasy worlds. Driven by the dream of being a ballerina, she earns scholarships and lead roles, studies in London for two years, and eventually lands back in Tucson, where she joins a fledgling ballet company and falls in love—with a woman and with marijuana.
Join Emily as she survives her troubled family, hangs out with dance royalty, saves Martha Graham, meets the Queen of England, slings hash in a diner, discovers her sexuality, and tries to figure out how it’s all going fit together in her ballerina world in this story of a brave and sometimes bumbling girl charging her way through life.
266 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 14, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 4, 2025
A BALLET OF MIDCENTURY MEMORIES
Texas in the 1950's is a very good place to be born
From the very first line of this memoir, the author hooks the reader with her fresh voice. and self deprecating sense of humor. Growing up is a chaotic dysfunctional home, she finds her home in the world of dance. This is a coming of age story, or rather, stories. In a series of stories smith writes about growing up in the late fifties sixties and seventies. At first I laughed at her recollections of life during those decades. Even when the chaos at home progressed, the frankly told stories are sprinkled humor. As a young adult she continued to study dance and then work as a dancer. Her behind the scenes descriptions of the dance world include a variety of adventures and experiences. Her memories about meeting dance royalty and actual royalty are a lot of fun. But she also writes about dealing with her realization that she was in love with a woman and her difficulties with being in love with drugs. Smith's style captivated me. I could not put this book down. Not something I would usually say about nonfiction. Reading this book was like listening to a good friend tell stories. Smith told plenty of stories about her early years, but she has plenty more stories to tell, and I can't wait to read them.
Thank you Books Forward and She Writes Press for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions in this review are my own. I loved this book and you will too.
Look for my blog post on storybooklady.net book blog.
Texas in the 1950's is a very good place to be born
From the very first line of this memoir, the author hooks the reader with her fresh voice. and self deprecating sense of humor. Growing up is a chaotic dysfunctional home, she finds her home in the world of dance. This is a coming of age story, or rather, stories. In a series of stories smith writes about growing up in the late fifties sixties and seventies. At first I laughed at her recollections of life during those decades. Even when the chaos at home progressed, the frankly told stories are sprinkled humor. As a young adult she continued to study dance and then work as a dancer. Her behind the scenes descriptions of the dance world include a variety of adventures and experiences. Her memories about meeting dance royalty and actual royalty are a lot of fun. But she also writes about dealing with her realization that she was in love with a woman and her difficulties with being in love with drugs. Smith's style captivated me. I could not put this book down. Not something I would usually say about nonfiction. Reading this book was like listening to a good friend tell stories. Smith told plenty of stories about her early years, but she has plenty more stories to tell, and I can't wait to read them.
Thank you Books Forward and She Writes Press for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions in this review are my own. I loved this book and you will too.
Look for my blog post on storybooklady.net book blog.
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October 13, 2025SMARTASS is the coming-of-age story of Emily Sayre Smith. Smith takes us through her wild and tumultuous life from birth in 1956 into the beginnings of her adult life at 23. Through this time her life is constant upheaval, chaos, and heartbreaking family trauma. Her father is an Episcopalian priest and suffers from addiction. Her mother is hypercritical, emotionally abusive to her and physically to her father. Her older sister escapes the brunt of her mother’s wrath.
Emily finds refuge in the world of ballet. The precision and rigidity of the world helps her to cope with what is happening in her home life. From a Saturday classes with a group of school friends to studying in London to hopefully become a member of the Royal Academy of Dance to studying in Tucson to perform with a small company we see Emily grow personally and professionally.
I enjoyed Emily’s story, but did have a few issues. From the cover you might expect this to be about a queer awakening but being queer is only touched on until the last 30 or so pages. The ending also felt a bit rushed but then to find out she had so much to tell that there will be a second book exploring the next phase of her life. It seemed like there was a heavy hand in the beginning but just a tap into the learning she gained from her experiences.
Overall I did enjoy her story because you never expect the next thing. I will be looking forward to the rest of her story.
Emily finds refuge in the world of ballet. The precision and rigidity of the world helps her to cope with what is happening in her home life. From a Saturday classes with a group of school friends to studying in London to hopefully become a member of the Royal Academy of Dance to studying in Tucson to perform with a small company we see Emily grow personally and professionally.
I enjoyed Emily’s story, but did have a few issues. From the cover you might expect this to be about a queer awakening but being queer is only touched on until the last 30 or so pages. The ending also felt a bit rushed but then to find out she had so much to tell that there will be a second book exploring the next phase of her life. It seemed like there was a heavy hand in the beginning but just a tap into the learning she gained from her experiences.
Overall I did enjoy her story because you never expect the next thing. I will be looking forward to the rest of her story.
September 18, 2025
With a priest for a dad and a magician for a mom, Emily Sayre Smith was basically destined to grow up in chaos and boy, does she have stories. In this candid, funny, and sometimes heartbreaking memoir, she walks us through her childhood and young adulthood in 1950s–70s Texas and Arizona, where ballet became her escape hatch from a turbulent home.
Emily doesn’t sugarcoat anything. She takes you from dance studios to London scholarships, from stage lights to diner shifts, from saving Martha Graham to meeting the Queen of England. Along the way she discovers her sexuality, experiments with pot, and falls in love sometimes with women, sometimes with ballet, always with life itself.
What makes Smartass sparkle is Emily’s voice: sharp, self-aware, and willing to laugh at her own mistakes. She doesn’t pose as a perfect survivor or a tragic heroine. Instead, she’s a scrappy, mouthy girl who stumbles, gets back up, and pirouettes into the next chapter. The result feels like sitting down with a witty, unfiltered friend who’s lived a thousand lives and can’t wait to tell you about them!
If you like memoirs about complicated families, artistic dreams, and women who refuse to be quiet, Smartass is a delightfully messy, brave, and ultimately uplifting read.
Emily doesn’t sugarcoat anything. She takes you from dance studios to London scholarships, from stage lights to diner shifts, from saving Martha Graham to meeting the Queen of England. Along the way she discovers her sexuality, experiments with pot, and falls in love sometimes with women, sometimes with ballet, always with life itself.
What makes Smartass sparkle is Emily’s voice: sharp, self-aware, and willing to laugh at her own mistakes. She doesn’t pose as a perfect survivor or a tragic heroine. Instead, she’s a scrappy, mouthy girl who stumbles, gets back up, and pirouettes into the next chapter. The result feels like sitting down with a witty, unfiltered friend who’s lived a thousand lives and can’t wait to tell you about them!
If you like memoirs about complicated families, artistic dreams, and women who refuse to be quiet, Smartass is a delightfully messy, brave, and ultimately uplifting read.
October 7, 2025
I recieved an ARC of Smartass from Books Forward so thanks Books Forward and Emily Sayre Smith for the opportunity to read this!!
So this spans Smith's life from when she is a young child to her early 20s and just flat out, I think Smith is a great writer. During the chapters where she is discussing her childhood and upbringing you can tell she was a delightful kid going through some shit things at home. I won't get into spoilers but there was a few passages that she wrote that make my therapist heart sing. During her teens and 20s, you really and truly feel how authentic her experience is as someone who is just trying to figure out themselves, what to do, and what the next step is. She has lived quite the interesting life and she's only written about a portion of it!
At the end of the book, she mentions that she will be writing another memoir and I am so glad to hear it. I hoped she would continue writing. I will be keeping my eye out.
So this spans Smith's life from when she is a young child to her early 20s and just flat out, I think Smith is a great writer. During the chapters where she is discussing her childhood and upbringing you can tell she was a delightful kid going through some shit things at home. I won't get into spoilers but there was a few passages that she wrote that make my therapist heart sing. During her teens and 20s, you really and truly feel how authentic her experience is as someone who is just trying to figure out themselves, what to do, and what the next step is. She has lived quite the interesting life and she's only written about a portion of it!
At the end of the book, she mentions that she will be writing another memoir and I am so glad to hear it. I hoped she would continue writing. I will be keeping my eye out.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews