Alex entered the MFA in 1993 with a primary focus on fiction and secondary on screenwriting. Since then, the converse has been true. After graduation, he moved to L.A. and made a modest ("okay, shy," he admits) living as a screenwriter. With his twin brother Andrew, he has written four feature scripts for Columbia Pictures, HBO, Warner Brothers, and Disney. They also wrote and directed the feature film The Slaughter Rule, which premiered at Sundance 2002 and won several major film festival awards, and went on to have a "wee theatrical release, and is now available at your finer video boutiques," Smith reports.

"My three years at the Michener Center were, by far, the most important years in my writing career," Smith says. "Lessons I learned then still resonate with me to this day. I remember Denis Johnson telling us to write at least 15 minutes a day—because without the fifteen minutes, you could never get to the eight hours. And W.S. Merwin giving us three rules that I utilize daily-WORDS ARE POEMS, OBSERVE ANIMALS, and MEMORIZE THE WORK YOU LOVE, so that its cadences live within your head. More than anything, I remember J.M. Coetzee's ability to go straight to the heart of any work based on asking 'What is it about?' That has aided me enormously in both my own writing and my ability to teach writing."

In addition to his ongoing writing projects for film, Alex now teaches with UT's Film Institute program in the Department of Radio-TV-Film.