May Miller
(January 26, 1899 - February 8, 1995)

1632 S St. NW, Dupont Circle neighborhood, DC.

Miller grew up on the campus of Howard University, where her father was a dean. She started her writing career as a Harlem Renaissance-era playwright, becoming one of the most published women playwrights of that period. Her plays include The Bog Guide (1925), Scratches (1929), Stragglers in the Dust (1930), and Nails and Thorns (1933). She also co-edited an anthology with Willis Richardson, Negro History in Thirteen Plays (1935).

After her retirement from twenty years of teaching in the Baltimore Public Schools, Miller returned to DC, where she helped to establish the DC Commission on the Arts and ran an influential writer's salon out of her home.

She began publishing poetry in the 1950s, publishing the first of nine books in 1959. Her poetry books include Into the Clearing (1959), Dust of Uncertain Journey (1975), and Halfway to the Sun (1981).

Links

Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Brian Gilmore on May Miller
Beltway Poetry Quarterly, "Mankind" (audio)
Beltway Poetry Quarterly, "The Washingtonian" (poem):
Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Myra Sklarew on May Miller