• Silver Alert, Algonquin Books, 2023
  • Blue Marlin, Blair, 2020
  • Mother and Strangers (edited by Samia Serageldin and Lee Smith), University of North Carolina Press, 2019
  • Dimestore: A Writer’s Life, Algonquin Books, 2016
  • Guests on Earth: a novel, Shannon Ravenel Books, 2013
  • Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger, Shannon Ravenel Books, 2010
  • On Agate Hill, Algonquin, 2006
  • All Time Is Now, Buy Books on the Web.Com, 2005
  • The Last Girls, Algonquin, 2002
  • Sitting on the Courthouse Bench: An Oral History of Grundy, Virginia, Tryon Publishing Company, 2000
  • Christmas Stories by North Carolina Writers (includes three pages of Christmas letters by Lee Smith) (edited by Ruth Moose), Down Home Press, 1997
  • News of the Spirit, Putnam, 1997, 2012
  • The Christmas Letters, a novella, Algonquin, 1996, 2002
  • Saving Grace, Putnam, 1995, 2013
  • We Don’t Love With Our Teeth, Chinook Press, 1995
  • Appalachian Portraits (narrative by Lee Smith; photos by Shelby Lee Adams), University Press of Mississippi, 1993
  • Interiores Familiares (Family Linen in Spanish), Destino (Barcelona), 1993
  • Official Travel Guide to Nashville-Music City, U.S.A., Southern Media Ventures, 1993
  • The Devil’s Dream, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1992, Berkley, 2011
  • For Alltid Din (Fair and Tender Ladies in Swedish), Legenda (Stockholm), 1991
  • Skønne Damer Uden Svig (Fair and Tender Ladies in Danish), Gyldendal (Copenhagen), 1988, 1991
  • Me and My Baby View The Eclipse, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1990, Berkley, 2014
  • Bob, a Dog, Mud Puppy Press, 1988
  • Fair and Tender Ladies, Putnam, 1988, Berkley, 2011
  • Family Linen, Putnam, 1985, Berkley, 2014
  • Oral History, Putnam, 1983, Berkley, 2011
  • Cake Walk, Putnam, 1981, University of South Carolina Press, 2014
  • Black Mountain Breakdown, Putnam, 1980, Berkley, 2012
  • Fancy Strut, Harper & Row, 1974, Ballantine Books, 1996
  • Something in the Wind, Harper & Row, 1969, 1971
  • The Last Day the Dogbushes Bloomed, Harper & Row, 1968, Louisiana State University Press, 1994, Amazon Digital Services LLC, 2016