E. Ethelbert Miller

E. Ethelbert Miller
at the 2013 Fall for the Book
Born	November 20, 1950 Bronx
Occupation	Professor
Language	English
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Howard University
Genre	Poetry; memoir
Website
eethelbertmiller.com/main.html

Eugene Ethelbert Miller, best known as E. Ethelbert Miller (born November 20, 1950), is an African-American poet and teacher.

Life

Miller was born in the Bronx, New York.^[1] He received his B.A. from Howard University. He is the author of nine 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. Since 1974 he has been director of Howard University's African-American Resource Center.^[2] 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).^[3]

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. He is also on the boards of Split This Rock and the Writer's Center, and is co-editor of Poet Lore magazine. 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).

In 1979, Marion Barry, the mayor of Washington, D.C., where Miller lives, proclaimed September 28, 1979, as "E. Ethelbert Miller Day."

His papers are held at Emory & Henry College and The George Washington University.^[4]

Awards

• 2004: Fulbright recipient
• May 21, 2001: Mayor of Jackson, Tennessee declared day as "E. Ethelbert Miller Day"^[5]
• 1997: Stephen Henderson Poetry Award
• 1995: O.B. Hardison, Jr. Poetry Prize
• 1994: PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award
• 1993: Columbia Merit Award
• 1982: Mayor's Art Award for Literature
• September 28, 1979: Mayor of Washington, D.C. proclaimed day as "E. Ethelbert Miller Day"^[5]

Bibliography

Poetry

• "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.
• How We Sleep On the Nights We Don't Make Love. Curbstone Press. 2004. ISBN 978-1-931896-04-7.
• Buddha Weeping in Winter. Red Dragonfly Press. 2001. ISBN 978-1-890193-25-6.
• Whispers, Secrets, and Promises. Black Classic Press. 1998. ISBN 978-1-57478-011-6.
• First Light: New and Selected Poems. Black Classic Press. 1993. ISBN 978-0-933121-81-2.
• The Fire This Time: 1992 and Beyond Los Angeles (Heaven Chapbook series), (White Fields Press, 1993)
• Where Are the Love Poems for Dictators?. Open Hand Publishing. 1986. ISBN 978-0-940880-65-8.
• Season of Hunger/Cry of Rain: Poems 1975-1980. Lotus Press. 1982. ISBN 978-0-916418-35-9.
• The Migrant Worker. Washington Writer's Publishing House. 1978. ISBN 978-0-931846-07-6.
• Andromeda. Chiva Publications. 1974.
• "The Land of Smiles and the Land of No Smiles: A Poem", (1974)

Anthologies

• Beyond the Frontier: African American Poetry for the 21st Century. Black Classic Press. 2002. ISBN 978-1-57478-017-8.
• E. Ethelbert Miller, Terrance Cummings, ed. (1994). In Search of Color Everywhere: A Collection of African American Poetry. Stewart, Tabori & Chang. ISBN 978-1-55670-339-3.
• Women Surviving Massacres and Men. Anemone Press. 1977.
• Ahmos Zu-Bolton II, E. Ethelbert Miller, eds. (1975). Synergy, an Anthology of Washington D. C. Black Poetry. Energy Blacksouth Press.
• Arnold Rampersad, Hilary Herbold, eds. (2006). "She Is Flat On Her Back". The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-512563-4.

Memoirs

• The 5th Inning. Busboys and Poets Press. 2009. ISBN 978-1-60486-062-7.
• Fathering Words: The Making of an African American Writer. St. Martin's Press. 2000. ISBN 978-0-312-27013-1.

References

1. "E. Ethelbert Miller", Poetry Foundation.
2. Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University.
3. http://arts.endow.gov/national/homecoming/authorbios/miller.html
4. Emory & Henry College Special Collections & Archives.
5. E. Ethelbert Miller Finding Aid, Special Collections Research Center, Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George Washington University

External links

• "Living the Legacy" - 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", On Being