Mary Miller (writer)

Mary U. Miller is an American fiction writer. She is the author of two collections of short stories entitled Big World [1] and Always Happy Hour.[2] Her debut novel entitled The Last Days of California was published by Liveright.[1] It is the story of a fourteen-year-old girl on a family road trip from the South to California, led by her evangelical father.[3] By January 2014, Big World had sold 3,000 copies and Last Days of California had an initial print run of 25,000.[1]

Mary Miller
Miller at the 2017 Texas Book Festival
Born	Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.
Occupation	Novelist, short story writer
Language	English
Nationality	American
Education	University of Texas
Genre	Coming-of-age
Notable works	The Last Days of California
Website
www.maryumiller.net

Last Days of California was recommended by numerous newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times,[4] the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,[5] the New York Times,[6] and Oprah's Book Club.[7] New York Times book critic Laurie Muchnick described her book as a "terrific first novel."[8] Chicago Tribune critic Laura Pearson wrote that it had "vivid but unfussy prose, pitched perfectly to the attitudes and observations of a teenage girl adrift."[9] Wall Street Journal critic Sam Sacks gave the book a mixed review, finding disappointment in that Miller's insight into characters did not extend to the subject of religious belief.[10] Critic Josh Cook in the Star Tribune gave the book a mixed review, saying it had "plenty here" but that some scenes felt "amiss".[11] Miller is a graduate of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas.[12] In 2014 she is the John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at Ole Miss.[13]