By: Jayden Presley
The University of Montevallo hosted its annual BACHE Visiting Writers’ Series for a special reading from Mississippi writer Mary Miller.
Miller is the author of novels “Always Happy Hour”, “Biloxi”, and “The Last Days of California”. The reading event took place on February 20 in the Pat Scales Room of Carmichael Library at 3:30 p.m.
UM students and faculty filled the room to hear Miller’s reading of her short story “Festival,” which first appeared in “The Paris Review” in 2018.
“Festival” is a character study about a woman named Lauren attending a local festival with her husband. The story captures the small moments in her life, such as Lauren remembering her younger years and her former relationship with one of the band members at the festival.
Lauren enters an art vendor’s shop and encounters Jesse, a man who she recalled having a “drunken, not-quite-consensual encounter” with her sister. She feels compelled to confront him but decides that too much time had passed to have a conversation about it.
Miller said she is not interested in writing stories that take place over long periods of time.
“I like to write pretty brief scopes in a lot of my stories,” she said. “I’m interested in the characters’ life at that moment and trying to capture it.”
She came onto the writing scene in a non-traditional way. She worked various jobs after college before settling back into writing poetry, a familiar territory since her high school days. Miller gradually moved into short fiction and published the works she is known for today.
She believes a love for reading is important for every writer and gave advice to aspiring writers in the early stages of their careers.
“Write not to a market or to an audience,” she said, “but write for yourself and the stories you most want to read.”
For more information about Miller, click here to see her website.
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