A.D. Miller, Poet and Memoirist

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A. D. Miller is pleased to announce the publication of his most recent book, Fall Rising: Exile to Odyssey.

You can purchase his book by clicking this link

"The great James Baldwin would have loved this book...Miller focuses with intimacy on soulful landscape: how in the1940s a South Carolina outcast ended up in California and in an “intellectual” Berkeley as functionally racist as the
rest of the U.S. From a living reading-writing-thinking American devoted to the arts and democratic ideals in recent history,how lucky we are to have such a profound story of survival."

—Al Young, California’s former Poet Laureate

FEATURED POEM of the month:

Four Tops Live at the Roostertail*

To Al Young

Duke and the back-up band wailed

"Ask the Lonely." A Sister called,

"Can I help you out?" Duke answered,

"I wish to god you could."

Mellow together, music and crowd, that night

you'd think a Motown night at The Roostertail:

Marvin Gaye, Isley Brothers, the Supremes,

all dropped by to give Duke and The Four Tops

a boost. Watts not on their minds at all.

Aretha was on one of her record-breaking,

body-bending tours. On the road she caught

Nina singing "Go limp" to too drunk white folk who

clapped, then choked on, "Mississippi, Goddamn!"

Water hoses and police dogs on Nina's mind.

Was their Titanic shaking toward fire and ice?

Was it Nero night at The Roostertail,

where they drank their drinks, danced their dance,

sang their song and didn't want to go home?

Ask the lonely, love don't come easy, will

you tell me please, please, please, what's going on?

*The Roostertail, popular Detroit nightspot during the Motown era.

A. D. playing didgeridoo at the Headwaters of the Sacramento River, Shasta, CA.

Photo credit: Maria Hirano

A. D.'s papers acquired by Stanford.

There was a celebration of that acquisition on April 2, 2017.

Pictures have been added from that event Please check them out by clicking here

Additionally, videos from the April 2, 2017 party and from prior times have been added. For those, click here.

AD at work with messy desk In October of 2016, the Stanford University Library Archive acquired A. D's papers, including journals, work product, and correspondence going back as early as the 1940's. The announcement of the acquisition can be found by going to this link.