Effie Waller Smith (1879-1960), a native of Pike County, Kentucky, was among the Black women poets who had her work published in national magazines in the early 20th century. She stopped writing for publication by the time she was 40, but her poetry was rediscovered and The Collected Works of Effie Waller Smith, with an introduction by David Deskins, was published in 1991.

Effie Waller was the third child born to Frank Waller and Sibbie Ratliff, former slaves who made a prosperous life for their family in an integrated community on Chloe Creek.

Her parents valued education, and Effie Waller was well read in classical literature. She started writing poems when she was a teenager. Like her siblings, she went to Frankfort to attend what is now Kentucky State University, where she trained to be a teacher from 1900-1901.