Smith continued to write and produced a collection of her essays, articles, and reviews after her involvement in Kitchen Table ended. Her article "Toward a Black Feminist Criticism" (1982), first published in "Conditions" magazine, is frequently cited as the breakthrough article in Black women's literature and Black lesbian discussion. Smith has edited three major collections about Black women: "Conditions 5: The Black Women's Issue" (1979, with Lorraine Bethel); "All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies" (1982, with Gloria T. Hull and Patricia Bell-Scott); and "Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology" (first edition, Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 1983; second edition, Rutgers University Press, 2000). She has since collected her various writings in the anthology "The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender, and Freedom" (1998).