V. Jolene Miller

V. Jolene Miller writes for and about the misfits, the misunderstood, and the underdogs of life. She has a love/hate relationship with Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle because it hits too close to (her childhood) home. She purchases $4 cups of coffee at places like Starbucks because once upon a time, all she had was $4 in her pocket. Yet, let’s face it, when your life story holds certain details that mold you it comes with awareness that a $5 coffee is a treat best saved for a special occasion—called pay day.

Miller hails from the backstreets of Hammond, Indiana—a mere stone’s throw from Gary—and spent the majority of her youth being too ashamed to admit it. Though public schooled she somehow managed to pay for tuition to a private Catholic college (BS 2006) and has both an MA (2008) and an MFA (2018). She started life on the ladder of upward mobility by holding tight to the rung of poverty. In no uncertain terms does she anticipate literary acclaim; instead she’s petrified that trading in her devotion to “the man” is more likely to mean devotion to “the food stamp line” than it would be devotion to the New York Times Bestseller list.

She spends most of her days at a fork in the road. On one side lie the poverty-stricken, lower-middle-class life goals, angst, and fear. On the other are expensive coffee, the theatre, couples’ massages, and restaurants with real tablecloths. On both sides lie heavy doses of judgment. On neither side does she truly belong. You can take the girl out of the ghetto, but you can’t take the ghetto out of the girl.

Some of Miller’s favorite books are:

The Firm (John Grisham), Under the Feet of Jesus (Helena Maria Veramontes), Still Missing (Beth Gutcheon), Wife 22 (Melanie Gideon), and The Women of Brewster Place (Gloria Naylor).

Her collection of short stories Sons of Steel won the Jason Wenger award for excellence in creative writing in 2018.