American poet (born 1950)
E. Ethelbert Miller
at the 2013 Fall for the Book
Born Eugene Ethelbert Miller (1950-11-20 ) November 20, 1950 (age 73)
Bronx , New York, U.S. Occupation Professor, poet, literary activist Language English Nationality American Alma mater
Howard University Genre Poetry; memoir
eethelbertmiller .com /main .html
Eugene Ethelbert Miller (born November 20, 1950) is an
African-American
poet , teacher and literary activist, based in
Washington, DC .
[1]
[2] He is the author of several collections of poetry and two memoirs, the editor of
Poet Lore magazine, and the host of the weekly
WPFW morning radio show On the Margin .
[3]
Life and career
Miller was born in the
Bronx, New York .
[4]
He received his B.A. from
Howard University .
[5] He is the author of 13 books of poetry, two memoirs and is the editor of three poetry anthologies. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including
Beltway Poetry Quarterly ,
Poet Lore , and
Sojourners .
Miller was the founder and director of the Ascension Poetry Reading Series, one of the oldest literary series in the Washington area. He was director of Howard University's African-American Resource Center from 1974 for more than 40 years.
[6]
[7] Miller has taught at various schools, including
American University ,
Emory & Henry College ,
George Mason University ,
Harpeth Hall School and the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas . He was also a core faculty member of the writing seminars at
Bennington College . He worked with
Operation Homecoming for the
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
[8]
A sign on the north entrance to the
Dupont Circle
Metro station in
Washington, D.C. An excerpt from "The Wound-Dresser", by
Walt Whitman , is inscribed into the granite wall around the entrance escalators. An excerpt from "We Embrace", by E. Ethelbert Miller, is inscribed into the sidewalk surrounding a nearby circular bench.
He currently serves as board chairperson of the
Institute for Policy Studies .
[9]
[10] He is also on the boards of
Split This Rock and the
Writer's Center , and since 2002 has been co-editor of
Poet Lore magazine, the oldest poetry journal in the US.
[11] He is former chair of the Humanities Council of
Washington, D.C. , and has served on the boards of the
AWP , the
Edmund Burke School ,
PEN American Center ,
PEN/Faulkner Foundation , and the
Washington Area Lawyer for the Arts (WALA) . He hosts a weekly morning radio show on
WPFW called On the Margin .
[1]
In 1979,
Marion Barry , the Mayor of
Washington, D.C ., where Miller lives, proclaimed September 28, 1979, as "E. Ethelbert Miller Day."
[12] Subsequently, on May 21, 2001, an "E. Ethelbert Miller Day" was also proclaimed by the Mayor of
Jackson, Tennessee .
[13]
Miller's papers are held at
Emory & Henry College and
The George Washington University .
[10]
[14]
Awards and honors
1979: September 28 proclaimed as "E. Ethelbert Miller Day" by the
Mayor of Washington, D.C.
[10]
1982: Mayor's Art Award for Literature
1988: Received the Public Humanities Award from the D.C. Humanities Council
[15]
1993: Columbia Merit Award
[16]
1994: Made an Honorary Citizen of the city of
Baltimore on July 17 by the
Mayor of Baltimore
[17]
1994:
PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award (for In Search of Color Everywhere )
1995:
O. B. Hardison, Jr. Poetry Prize
1996: Honorary doctorate of literature awarded on May 18 by Emory & Henry College
[13]
1997: Stephen Henderson Poetry Award from the African American Literature and Culture Society
[9]
2001: May 21 declared as "E. Ethelbert Miller Day" by the Mayor of Jackson, Tennessee
[10]
[13]
2003: Fathering Words selected by DC WE READ for the one book, one city program sponsored by the D.C. Public Libraries
[15]
2003: Honored by First Lady
Laura Bush at the
White House
2004:
Fulbright Scholarship recipient
[9]
2015: Inducted into the Washington, DC Hall of Fame
[18]
2016: AWP George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature and the DC Mayor's Arts Award for Distinguished Honor
[19]
2018: Inducted into Gamma Xi Phi, a fraternity for artists
[20]
Bibliography
Poetry
"The Land of Smiles and the Land of No Smiles: A Poem." 1974.
Andromeda . Chiva Publications. 1974.
The Migrant Worker .
Washington Writers' Publishing House . 1978.
ISBN
978-0-931846-07-6 .
Season of Hunger/Cry of Rain: Poems 1975-1980 .
Lotus Press . 1982.
ISBN
978-0-916418-35-9 .
Where Are the Love Poems for Dictators? .
Open Hand Publishing . 1986.
ISBN
978-0-940880-65-8 .
The Fire This Time: 1992 and Beyond Los Angeles (Heaven Chapbook series),
White Fields Press , 1993.
First Light: New and Selected Poems .
Black Classic Press . 1993.
ISBN
978-0-933121-81-2 .
Whispers, Secrets, and Promises . Black Classic Press. 1998.
ISBN
978-1-57478-011-6 .
Buddha Weeping in Winter .
Red Dragonfly Press . 2001.
ISBN
978-1-890193-25-6 .
How We Sleep On the Nights We Don't Make Love .
Curbstone Press . 2004.
ISBN
978-1-931896-04-7 .
"The 10 Race Koans as presented to Charles Johnson on the Morning of July 13, 2008; Shonda in England; Thomas Jefferson said he saw you in Paris" . DC Poets . October 31, 2008.
"The Hooker Never Votes; Water Song; 2 Shorts and a Smoke" . Delaware Poetry Review .
On Saturdays, I Santana With You .
Curbstone Press . 2009.
ISBN
978-1-931896-50-4 .
The Collected Poems of E. Ethelbert Miller (ed. Kirsten Porter), Willow Books, 2016.
ISBN
978-0996139021
If God Invented Baseball: Poems ,
Simon and Schuster , 2018.
ISBN
9781947951006
When Your Wife Has Tommy John Surgery and Other Baseball Stories , Simon and Schuster, 2021.
ISBN
9781947951365
[21]
Anthologies
Memoirs
References
^
a
b Hayley Garrison Phillips,
"Local Legend E. Ethelbert Miller Isn't Going Anywhere" ,
Washingtonian , February 6, 2018.
^ Elizabeth Lund,
"Poetry that explores love and aggression, baseball and the natural world" ,
The Washington Post , March 9, 2018.
^ Grace Cavalieri,
"Featured Poet E. Ethelbert Miller" , 40th Anniversary "The Poet and the Poem".
^
"E. Ethelbert Miller" , Poetry Foundation.
^
"Honorary Board" . The Writer's Center . Retrieved June 9, 2020 .
^
"Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University" . Archived from
the original on July 8, 2009. Retrieved July 12, 2009 .
^ Courtland Milloy,
"Outpouring of support for poet who says he was let go from Howard" , The Washington Post , May 5, 2015.
^
"E. Ethelbert Miller" , Operation Homecoming, National Initiatives, National Endowment for the Arts, October 17, 2004. Archived
from the original on August 23, 2013.
^
a
b
c Krane, Scott (May 26, 2019).
"E. Ethelbert Miller: Jazz in Poetry" . Jazz Times .
^
a
b
c
d
E. Ethelbert Miller Finding Aid , Special Collections Research Center, Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George Washington University.
^
"Our Story" , Poet Lore .
^
"E. Ethelbert Miller's Biography" . The HistoryMakers . Retrieved June 9, 2020 .
^
a
b
c
"About E. Ethelbert Miller | Academy of American Poets" . Academy of American Poets . Retrieved June 9, 2020 .
^
"Emory & Henry College Special Collections & Archives" . Archived from
the original on August 20, 2008. Retrieved July 12, 2009 .
^
a
b
"Biography"
Archived October 28, 2017, at the
Wayback Machine , E. Ethelbert Miller website.
^
"E. Ethelbert Miller, Eugene Ethelbert Miller" . The Black Names Project . April 26, 2019. Retrieved June 9, 2020 .
^
"Award-Winning Writer E. Ethelbert Miller Speaks at MC on October 22" . Montgomery College . October 20, 2008. Retrieved June 9, 2020 .
^
E. Ethelbert Miller biography at Willow Books.
^
"E. Ethelbert Miller" , Beltway Poetry Quarterly .
^
"Brother E. Ethelbert Miller featured in DoveTales" , Gamma Xi Phi, February 15, 2020.
^ Ethelbert Miller, E. (September 7, 2021).
When Your Wife Has Tommy John Surgery and Other Baseball Stories | Poems . Simon & Schuster.
ISBN
9781947951365 . Retrieved May 31, 2021 .
External links
"Living the Legacy"
Archived February 15, 2009, at the
Wayback Machine – official website
American Academy of Poets page
Two Poems by Miller at
Beltway Poetry Quarterly
Audio interview with
Grace Cavalieri
"E. Ethelbert Miller" , reverbiage , NPR
"Poetry by E. Ethelbert Miller"
Archived September 27, 2013, at the
Wayback Machine , On Being
"E. Ethelbert Miller, Featured Writer" , Writing For Peace, February 2020.
"Talking With Poets: E. Ethelbert Miller, The Poet of Baseball and of Life" . Interview with
Indran Amirthanayagam . The Poetry Channel, July 12, 2021.
E. Ethelbert Miller Receives 2022 Howard Zinn Lifetime Achievement Award , at HowardZinn.org.
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