Kei Miller

Updated on Nov 07, 2023

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Name Kei Miller		Role Poet


Education University of the West Indies, Manchester Metropolitan University Books The Cartographer Tries to M, The Last Warner Woman, The same Earth, There is an anger that moves, Writing Down the Vision: Es Similar People Marlon James, Colin Channer, Choman Hardi, Warsan Shire

Kei miller new poems

Kei Miller (born 24 October 1978) is an award-winning Jamaican poet, fiction writer, essayist and blogger. He is also a teacher of creative writing.

Kei miller

Early life and education

Kei Miller was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. He read English at the University of the West Indies, but dropped out short of graduation. However, while studying there, he befriended Mervyn Morris, who encouraged his writing. Afterward, Miller began publishing widely throughout the Caribbean.

Kei Miller Kei Miller on the Death of Dub Poetry Moko

In 2004, he left for England to study for an MA in Creative Writing (The Novel) at Manchester Metropolitan University under the tutelage of poet and scholar Michael Schmidt. Miller later completed a PhD in English Literature at the University of Glasgow.

Career

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In 2006, Miller's first book of poetry was released, Kingdom of Empty Bellies (Heaventree Press). It was shortly followed by a collection of short stories, The Fear of Stones, which partly explores issues of Jamaican homophobia. The collection was shortlisted in 2007 for a Commonwealth Writers' Prize in the category of Best First Book (Canada or Caribbean). His second collection of poetry, There Is an Anger That Moves, was published in 2007 by Carcanet Press. He is also the editor of Carcanet's 2007 New Caribbean Poetry: An Anthology. His first novel, The Same Earth, was published in 2008, followed in 2010 by The Last Warner Woman. That same year saw the publication of his poetry collection A Light Song of Light. In 2013 his Writing Down the Vision: Essays & Prophecies was published, and in 2014 a collection of poems for which he was awarded the Forward Prize, The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion. Hilary Mantel chose The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion as one of her favourite books of 2014.

In 2014, Miller was named as one of the 20 "Next Generation Poets", a list compiled every ten years by the Poetry Book Society.

He was an International Writing Fellow at the University of Iowa, and has also been a visiting writer at York University in Canada, at the Department of Library Services in the British Virgin Islands and a Vera Rubin Fellow at Yaddo. He currently divides his time between Jamaica and the United Kingdom. Until 2014, he was Reader at the University of Glasgow. He currently teaches Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Miller's third novel, Augustown, won the 2017 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.

Awards and honours

2017: Winner of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for Augustown

2014: Winner of the Forward Prize for Poetry, The Cartographer Tries to Map A Way to Zion

2014: Named as one of the Next Generation Poets

2014: Shortlisted for the international Dylan Thomas Prize, The Cartographer Tries to Map A Way to Zion

2014: OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature (Non-fiction), Writing Down the Vision

2013: Rex Nettleford Fellow in Cultural Studies

2013: Shortlisted for the Phillis Wheatley Book Award in Fiction, The Last Warner Woman

2010: Shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, A Light Song of Light

2009: Silver Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica

2007: International Writer's Fellowship at the University of Iowa

Works

Fear of Stones and Other Stories (short stories), Macmillan Caribbean, 2006, ISBN 978-1405066372.

Kingdom of Empty Bellies (poems), Heaventree Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0954881122.

There Is an Anger That Moves, Carcanet Press, 2007, ISBN 978-1857549454.

The Same Earth (novel), Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2008, ISBN 978-0297844808; Phoenix, 2009, ISBN 978-0753823118.

The Last Warner Woman (novel), Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2010, ISBN 978-0297860778; Phoenix, 2011, ISBN 978-0753828083.

A Light Song of Light (poems), Carcanet Press, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84777-103-2.

Writing Down the Vision: Essays & Prophecies, Peepal Tree Press, 2013, ISBN 978-1845232283.

The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion (poems), Carcanet, 2014, ISBN 978-1847772671.

Augustown (novel), Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2016, ISBN 978-1474603591

As editor

New Caribbean Poetry: An Anthology, Carcanet Press, 2007, ISBN 978-1857549416.

References

Kei Miller Wikipedia

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