A.D. Miller is an African American poet born in South Carolina in 1922. Fall Rising is a sequel to Ticket to Exile which was published by Heyday Books in Berkeley in 2007 and was a Finalist for Northern California Book Reviewers Award for 2008 and a finalist for William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. When Ticket ends, A. D. is nineteen and has been exiled from Orangeburg, South Carolina for the “crime” of writing a white girl a seven word note: I would like to know you better. For this, he was arrested by two armed policemen, interrogated, charged with “attempted rape,” jailed, and released only on condition that he leave town.
A. D. has published five books of poetry: The Sky is a Page, (Eshu House Publishing, Berkeley, CA, 2009); Land Between, (Eshu House Publishing, 2000); Apocalypse is My Garden, (Eshu House Publishing, 1997); Forever Afternoon, (Michigan State University Press, 1994: Winner of the first Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award, 1994); Neighborhood and Other Poems, (Mina Press, 1992.)
Miller toured with his theater company, The Aldridge Players West. They produced and performed in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. In an all- expense paid tour, they performed before standing room only audiences to great applause and standing ovations.
Miller has a B.A., English, Speech, Mathematics; an M.A. English and has done post-M.A. work in U.S. Theatre and Dramatic Literature at UC Berkeley. He was an Instructor of English, Creative Writing, and Literature at UC Berkeley from 1987-1991 and at Laney Community College (Oakland, CA) from 1967-1988. He helped establish a Reading Center, Writing Center and Peer Tutoring Center (1969)when he taught at San Francisco State College (now SFSU) from 1962-67.
Miller worked in northern California for five decades as a teacher, writer, poet, publisher, and radio and television producer.
He lives in Berkeley, CA with his wife, Elise Peeples, and their cat Tito.
