Martha Miller (author)

Last updated


Martha Miller
Born
Martha Jane Thompson

December 21, 1947
Springfield, Illinois
EducationSangamon State University, BA University of Illinois, Springfield, MA
Occupation(s)Author of novels and short stories, journalist and critic, English professor (retired 2015)
SpouseAnn Lynn Steiner
ChildrenPhillip Duane Miller, April 27, 1973—August 24, 2018 Andrew Ryan Miller, December 15, 1975—May 21, 2018
Website https://www.marthamiller.net

Martha Miller is a writer and English professor best known for her stories that explore gay and lesbian life across genres including crime, YA, and memoir.

Contents

Biography

Martha Jane Thompson was born on December 21, 1947 in Springfield Illinois to World War II veteran, Carl E. Thompson and A. Geraldine (Drum) Thompson. [1] Miller graduated from Feitshans High School, in 1965.

She married Phillip Dale Miller in 1971 and had two sons, Phillip and Andrew. In 1989, Miller got sober, divorced her husband, and came out as a lesbian. [2]

She met and Ann Lynn Steiner [3] since 1994. They married July 10, 2011 when same-sex civil unions were legalized in Illinois.

Education and Career

Miller earned her BA from Sangamon State University and her MA from University of Illinois, Springfield. [2]

Until she retired in 2015, Miller was an English instructor at Benedictine University at Springfield, IL, Lincoln Land Community College, and Richland Community College, Decatur, IL. [2]

In 1984, Miller joined AA, came out, and began writing, focussing on gay and lesbian themes. She wrote short stories including lesbian erotica for On Our Backs and the short story anthologies, Herotica published by Susie Bright and Joani Blank. [1]

Miller has written extensive portrayals of actual and fictional gay and lesbian life. She's gained wide recognition in the LGBTQ community and writing circles. Her book Retirement Plan: a Crime Story was a finalist in the 2011 Lambda Literary Awards, [4] her short story,"At the Last Minute" won the Raymond Carver Short Fiction Award, [5] her book Widow was a finalist in the Golden Crown Literary Awards, [6] and her story "Skin to Skin" was won a five thousand dollar award from the Illinois Arts Council and was a finalist for the ASTEREA Lesbian Writers Awards. [7] The play, "Billy's Voice," a one act play about a woman who has lost her son to AIDS had four encore performances, was staged at the Little Castro Theater in San Francisco, and was published in the arts journal, "Modern Words." [1] [8]

During the AIDS epidemic, Miller developed a five-week workshop in which a group of men with AIDS and HIV wrote stories about themselves. She received a Lila Wallace Grant for this project in 1995 and held the workshop at her local SARA (Springfield AIDS Resource Association) Center. [8]

Miller wrote Tales from the Levee in 2005, a "mythology" rather than a history of a vanished gay community of Springfield, Illinois that relied on interviews with lesbians, gay men and drag queens that frequented the Levee area. [9] [10]

Miller has written nine books, published over twenty-four short stories, and wrote the column "Martha [lesbian] Living" for Prairie Flame for many years. [11] She is a member of the Author's Guild, Sisters in Crime, CORAL (Coalition of Rainbow Alliances), and the Society of Midland Authors.

Books

Novels

Short Fiction

Creative Non-Fiction

Related Research Articles

John Preston was an American author of gay erotica and an editor of gay nonfiction anthologies.

Judy Grahn is an American poet and author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lambda Literary Awards</span> Award for published works that celebrate or explore LGBT themes

Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature. The awards were instituted in 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Allison</span> American writer (born 1949)

Dorothy Allison is an American writer from South Carolina whose writing focuses on class struggle, sexual abuse, child abuse, feminism and lesbianism. She is a self-identified lesbian femme. Allison has won a number of awards for her writing, including several Lambda Literary Awards. In 2014, Allison was elected to membership in the Fellowship of Southern Writers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesléa Newman</span> American author, editor, and feminist

Lesléa Newman is an American author, editor, and feminist best known for the children's book Heather Has Two Mommies. Four of her young adult novels have been finalists for the Lambda Literary Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature, making her one of the most celebrated authors in the category.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Doty</span> American poet and memoirist (born 1953)

Mark Doty is an American poet and memoirist best known for his work My Alexandria. He was the winner of the National Book Award for Poetry in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesbian literature</span> Subgenre of literature with lesbian themes

Lesbian literature is a subgenre of literature addressing lesbian themes. It includes poetry, plays, fiction addressing lesbian characters, and non-fiction about lesbian-interest topics. A similar term is sapphic literature, encompassing works that feature love between women that are not necessarily lesbian.

Joan Larkin is an American poet and playwright. She was active in the small press lesbian feminist publishing explosion in the 1970s, co-founding the independent publishing company Out & Out Books. She is now in her fourth decade of teaching writing. The science fiction writer Donald Moffitt was her brother.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Nestle</span> Lesbian writer

Joan Nestle is a Lambda Award winning writer and editor and a founder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, which holds, among other things, everything she has ever written. She is openly lesbian and sees her work of archiving history as critical to her identity as "a woman, as a lesbian, and as a Jew."

Elana Dykewomon was an American lesbian activist, author, editor, and teacher. She was a recipient of the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Livia (author)</span> Irish born lesbian writer, novelist, translator, and academic

Anna Livia was a lesbian feminist author and linguist, well known for her fiction and non-fiction regarding sexuality. From 1999 until shortly before the time of her death she was a member of staff at University of California, Berkeley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terry Wolverton</span> American novelist, memoirist, poet, and editor (born 1954)

Terry Wolverton is an American novelist, memoirist, poet, and editor. Her book Insurgent Muse: Life and Art at the Woman's Building, a memoir published in 2002 by City Lights Books, was named one of the "Best Books of 2002" by the Los Angeles Times, and was the winner of the 2003 Publishing Triangle Judy Grahn Award, and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Her novel-in-poems Embers was a finalist for the PEN USA Litfest Poetry Award and the Lambda Literary Award.

Christine Beatty is an American writer, musician and transgender activist. She is one of the first trans women to perform and record as a heavy metal musician.

Jean M. Redmann, known professionally as J. M. Redmann and R. Jean Reid, is an American novelist best known for her Micky Knight mystery series, which has won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Mystery three times and been a finalist four times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Laughlin</span> American novelist

Anne Laughlin is a writer from Chicago, Illinois. She is the author of seven novels of crime fiction, as well as many published short stories. Laughlin was named an emerging writer by the Lambda Literary Foundation in 2008 and 2014 and was awarded a writing residency at Ragdale. She has been awarded four Goldie Awards from the Golden Crown Literary Society, as well as shortlisted three times for Lambda Literary Awards. She has also been awarded an Alice B Readers Award for excellence in lesbian fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Shelley</span> American lesbian feminist activist

Martha Shelley is an American activist, writer, and poet best known for her involvement in lesbian feminist activism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jon Macy</span> Gay American cartoonist

Jon Macy is a gay American cartoonist. He is best known for his graphic novel DJUNA: The Extraordinary Life of Djuna Barnes, a biography of the beautiful and irascible Modernist author. His graphic novel Teleny and Camille, won a 2010 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Erotica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeanne Córdova</span> American writer

Jeanne Córdova was an American writer and supporter of the lesbian and gay rights movement, founder of The Lesbian Tide, and a founder of the West Coast LGBT movement. A former Catholic nun, Córdova was a second-wave feminist lesbian activist and self-described butch.

Ian Young is an English-Canadian poet, editor, literary critic, and historian. He was a member of the University of Toronto Homophile Association, the first post-Stonewall gay organization in Canada. He founded Canada's first gay publishing company, Catalyst Press, in 1970, printing over thirty works of poetry and fiction by Canadian, British, and American writers until the press ceased operation in 1980. His work has appeared in Canadian Notes & Queries, The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, Rites and Continuum, as well as in more than fifty anthologies. He was a regular columnist for The Body Politic from 1975 to 1985 and for Torso between 1991 and 2008.

Victoria A. Brownworth is an American journalist, writer, and editor. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, she wrote numerous award-winning articles about AIDS in women, children, and people of color. She was the first person in the United States to write a column about lesbianism in a daily newspaper.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Johnson, Curt (1995). Who's Who in Writers, Editors & Poets: United States & Canada 1995-1996. Highland Park, Ill. : December Press. p. 315. ISBN   978-0913204306.
  2. 1 2 3 "Author Martha Miller's official website". www.marthamiller.net. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
  3. ↑ "Illinois Center for the Book -- Illinois Authors -- Individual Author Record". www.illinoisauthors.org. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
  4. ↑ "Lammys Directory: 1988-Present". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
  5. ↑ "Raymond Carver Archives". Carve Magazine | HONEST FICTION. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
  6. ↑ "About Martha Miller". Amazon.
  7. ↑ "'95 author honoree to sign new book". State Journal-Register. June 7, 1998.
  8. 1 2 Browning, Tamara (July 4, 1995). "Writing Workshop set for those with AIDS". The State Journal-Register. p. 10.
  9. ↑ Shoulders, Townsend. "Remembering the Levee". Illinois Times. Retrieved 2024-06-30.
  10. ↑ Kienzler, Mickey (May 21, 1995). "Writers of the year share common bond". State Journal-Register.
  11. ↑ Rhodes, Dusty (September 10, 2008). "Putting Out the Flame". Illinois Times. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
  12. ↑ Jackson, Jacqueline (2011-05-26). "A Springfield author's likeable murderers". Illinois Times. p. 45.
  13. ↑ Banis, Victor J. (May 18, 2011). "Book Review: Retirement Plan by Martha Miller". San Francisco Examiner. NewsBank: America's News.
  14. ↑ Dell, Heather (2001-05-01). "Private Eye with a Public". The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide. 8 (3): 44.
  15. ↑ Sarkessian, Juliet (2001-01-01). "Ah, Mystery". Lambda Book Report. 9 (6): 25.
  16. ↑ Myers, J.A. (Jan 31, 2002). "Review of Death Club by Claire McNab and Nine Nights on the Windy Tree by Martha Miller". The Lesbian Review of Books. 8 (2): 24. ProQuest   218135298 – via ProQuest.
  17. ↑ Miller, Martha (1998). Skin to skin : erotic lesbian love stories. Internet Archive. Norwich, VT : New Victoria Publishers. ISBN   978-0-934678-86-5.
  18. ↑ Rhodes, Dusty. "Putting out the flame". Illinois Times. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.