Olan L. Smith was born in Huntsville, Missouri in 1953. He graduated from Westran High School in 1971 and went on to receive two degrees in higher education.  He graduated in 1978 from Northwest Christian College in Eugene Oregon with a B.S. degree, and a Master's degree from Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri.  Olan first published poetry in 1985 in two literary publications; Earthwise, University of Miami, Florida, and Alura Poetry, Vol. X, No 2 Fall, 1985; Minnesota.  Other published poems from Olan L. Smith (Cotton Jones) can be found in Poetry Train America, by John E. Wordslinger (edited by Charles H. Gragg), 2013; The Universe Inside; Editor Eva Xanithopoulos, 2012.

First Wattpad featured eBook:
http://www.wattpad.com/story/10028552-journey-home

"Folly" was also featured by Wattpad, https://www.wattpad.com/44669876-folly

Olan announces that his eBook "The Wizard!" is now a featured story on Wattpad, "The Wizard!" is his second featured collection of poems.  https://www.wattpad.com/story/30816974-the-wizard

Wattpad's Paranormal Community has chosen to publish a couple of Olan's poems on its "Haunted Verses" site, check it out. https://www.wattpad.com/story/69316367-haunted-verses-paranormal-poems/parts

https://www.wattpad.com/316977252-necrocity-times-issue-1-halloween-special-haunted

https://www.wattpad.com/394567084-poets-pub-writer%27s-handbook-part-ii-how-to-write

Haunted Verses, Wattpad Paranormal Community published my work: https://www.wattpad.com/412008872-haunted-verses-paranormal-poems-beauty-and-the


We Board this Train, is published,
 Poetry Train Africa: Ethiopia Book 10

"Beatniks and Nuditudes," 1st published on Wattpad 2017, was recently published in ROR magazine Summer Edition, p. 80. https://issuu.com/dartmouthassociates/docs/ror_mag_summer_2021_issue