{"id":203,"date":"2020-03-27T12:10:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T17:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/mfacreativewriting\/?p=203"},"modified":"2023-03-22T10:34:16","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T15:34:16","slug":"miller-gets-mial-nomination-for-biloxi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.muw.edu\/mfacreativewriting\/news\/miller-gets-mial-nomination-for-biloxi\/","title":{"rendered":"Miller gets MIAL nomination for Biloxi"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Mary<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

COLUMBUS, Miss.– The incongruency stuck in Mary Miller\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On one hand, the array of colorful balloons tied to a mail box evoked an image of a party. But the hand-written sign that said \u201cFree Dogs\u201d countered the original festive picture with one of longing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those contrasting thoughts were with Miller one day when she sat down to write. She didn\u2019t intend to revisit the scene, but the arrival of Louis McDonald Jr. forced her to dig deeper. It didn\u2019t take long for Miller to become engrossed in a story that McDonald wanted her to create.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McDonald and Layla, a dog Miller modeled after her own dog, Winter, ultimately became the central characters in \u201cBiloxi,\u201d her second novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t stop to think about who the narrator was,\u201d Miller said. \u201cLouis McDonald Jr. was on the page from the first scene and I don\u2019t feel like I created him, at least not consciously. His felt like a story that very much wanted to be told.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Described as \u201ca strangely heartwarming tale of loneliness, masculinity, and the limitations of each,\u201d Biloxi recently helped Miller get nominated in the Fiction category for the Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters. The 41st Anniversary Awards Gala will be June 6 at the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was thrilled,\u201d said Miller, a faculty member in the Mississippi University for Women\u2019s MFA in Creative Writing program. She is one of eight nominees in the Fiction category. \u201cIt\u2019s my first nomination. I have known and admired many people who\u2019ve been nominated in the past, and I\u2019m happy to be among them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Valentin Bogdan, a professor in The W\u2019s Department of Music, was nominated in Music Composition (Classical) for \u201cVantage Points\u201d for bassoon and violin. CT Salazar, a graduate of The W\u2019s MFA in Creative Writing program, was nominated in Poetry for his collection \u201cThis Might Have Meant Fire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winners also will be selected in Visual Arts, Photography, Musical Composition (Contemporary), Nonfiction, and Youth Literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe W is very fortunate to have three nominees in three separate categories for awards from the Mississippi Institute for Arts and Letters,\u201d said Dr. Bridget Smith Pieschel, who is director of The W\u2019s Center of Women\u2019s Research and Public Policy and a professor of English at the school and a member of the 2019-20 MIAL Board of Governors. \u201cI have been a board member of this organization for about a decade, and our university is always well represented.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miller also has written the novel \u201cThe Last Days of California\u201d (2014) and two collections of short stories: \u201cAlways Happy Hour: Stories\u201d (2017) and \u201cBig World\u201d (2009). Her stories have appeared in \u201cThe Paris Review,\u201d the \u201cOxford American,\u201d \u201cNew Stories from the South,\u201d \u201cNorton\u2019s Seagull Book of Stories,\u201d \u201cMississippi Review,\u201d and many others. She is a former James A. Michener Fellow in Fiction at the University of Texas and John and Ren\u00e9e Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to highlighting \u201cBiloxi\u201d as a tale of loneliness and masculinity, the \u201cNew York Review of Books\u201d said Miller has a \u201csociologist\u2019s eye for the mundane and revealing.\u201d Miller said she didn\u2019t base McDonald Jr. on one person and that he was an \u201camalgamation of several older men\u201d she knows. She said she enjoyed her first foray into writing from a male character\u2019s point of view and feels all writers are inspired by people they know in creating characters in their stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery time I sat down to write Louis was there and it felt like he was dragging me along for the ride,\u201d Miller said. \u201cDuring that time I was supposed to be writing another book and I kept trying to ignore Louis\u2019 story but he wouldn\u2019t let me. He had a story that wanted to be told.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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