E. Ethelbert Miller

Eugene Ethelbert Miller, best known as E. 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]

E. Ethelbert Miller
at the 2013 Fall for the Book
at the 2013 Fall for the Book
BornEugene Ethelbert Miller
(1950-11-20) November 20, 1950
Bronx, New York, U.S.
OccupationProfessor, poet, literary activist
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHoward University
GenrePoetry; memoir
Website
eethelbertmiller.com/main.html

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
  1. Hayley Garrison Phillips, "Local Legend E. Ethelbert Miller Isn't Going Anywhere", Washingtonian, February 6, 2018.
  2. Elizabeth Lund, "Poetry that explores love and aggression, baseball and the natural world", The Washington Post, March 9, 2018.
  3. Grace Cavalieri, "Featured Poet E. Ethelbert Miller", 40th Anniversary "The Poet and the Poem".
  4. "E. Ethelbert Miller", Poetry Foundation.
  5. "Honorary Board". The Writer's Center. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
  6. "Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University". Archived from the original on July 8, 2009. Retrieved July 12, 2009.
  7. Courtland Milloy, "Outpouring of support for poet who says he was let go from Howard", The Washington Post, May 5, 2015.
  8. "E. Ethelbert Miller", Operation Homecoming, National Initiatives, National Endowment for the Arts, October 17, 2004. Archived from the original on August 23, 2013.
  9. Krane, Scott (May 26, 2019). "E. Ethelbert Miller: Jazz in Poetry". Jazz Times.
  10. E. Ethelbert Miller Finding Aid, Special Collections Research Center, Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George Washington University.
  11. "Our Story", Poet Lore.
  12. "E. Ethelbert Miller's Biography". The HistoryMakers. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
  13. "About E. Ethelbert Miller | Academy of American Poets". Academy of American Poets. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
  14. "Emory & Henry College Special Collections & Archives". Archived from the original on August 20, 2008. Retrieved July 12, 2009.
  15. "Biography" Archived October 28, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, E. Ethelbert Miller website.
  16. "E. Ethelbert Miller, Eugene Ethelbert Miller". The Black Names Project. April 26, 2019. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
  17. "Award-Winning Writer E. Ethelbert Miller Speaks at MC on October 22". Montgomery College. October 20, 2008. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
  18. E. Ethelbert Miller biography at Willow Books.
  19. "E. Ethelbert Miller", Beltway Poetry Quarterly.
  20. "Brother E. Ethelbert Miller featured in DoveTales", Gamma Xi Phi, February 15, 2020.
  21. 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.
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