American writer’s visited by small models (5)
I believe the answer is:
poses
'models' is the definition.
(I know this)
'american writer's visited by small' is the wordplay.
'american writer's' becomes 'poe's' (Edgar Allan Poe).
'visited by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'poes' going around 's' is 'POSES'.
(Other definitions for poses that I've seen before include "Sits for artist" , "is ready for photo" , "presents" , "Models" , "Strikes attidude for artist" .)