Alison Smith's first book, Name All the Animals, was a New York Times notable book and named one of People’s ten best books of the year. Her other honors include the Barnes & Noble Discover Award, a Lambda Literary Award, the Judy Grahn Award from the Publishing Triangle, and a National Magazine Award from Mental Health America. Smith’s stories and essays have appeared in Granta, McSweeney’s, Real Simple, Glamour, and Public Seminar, among others. Her story The Big Empty was adapted into a short film starring Selma Blair.
While at MacDowell, in 2016 she completed a memoir titled How Shall We Account for This, which focuses on themes of mental illness and society's perceptions of illness and health. During her 2025 residency, Smith worked on final revisions to her book, UnSound: Reflections on a Life of Hearing Voices (Spiegel & Grau 2027).
