May Miller was an African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 poet, playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

 and educator. Miller became known as the most widely published female playwright of the Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke...

, with seven published volumes of poetry during her career as a writer.

Personal life

May Miller was born in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 to Kelly

Kelly Miller (scientist)

Kelly Miller was an African American mathematician, sociologist, essayist, newspaper columnist, author, and an important figure in the intellectual life of black America for close to half a century.-Career:...

 and Anna May Miller, one of the Millers' five children. Kelly Miller, born shortly after the Emancipation Proclamation

Emancipation Proclamation

The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly...

, was the first African American student to attend Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

, and later became one of the pioneers of sociology

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

. Miller began writing poetry at an early age, buying a pair of earrings with her first earnings. While attending Dunbar High School

Dunbar High School (Washington, D.C.)

Dunbar High School is a public secondary school located in Washington, D.C., United States. The school is located in the Truxton Circle neighborhood of Northwest Washington, two blocks from the intersection of New Jersey and New York Avenues...

 Miller studied under the writers Mary P. Burrill

Mary P. Burrill

Mary P. Burrill was an early 20th century African-American female playwright and educator who also inspired Willis Richardson and other students to write plays.-Biography:...

 and Angelina Weld Grimke

Angelina Weld Grimke

Angelina Weld Grimké was an African-American journalist, teacher, playwright and poet who was part of the Harlem Renaissance and was one of the first African-American women to have a play performed.- Biography :...

. She graduated from Howard University

Howard University

Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...

 in 1920, where she won an award for her play Within the Shadows. Miller did graduate work in poetry and drama at American University

American University

American University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...

 and Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, followed by twenty years teaching English and speech at Frederick Douglass High School

Frederick Douglass Senior High School (Baltimore, Maryland)

Frederick Douglass High School known locally as Douglass is a public high school located in Baltimore, Maryland, US. Established in 1883 as the Colored High and Training School, Douglass is the second oldest historically integrated public high school in the United States...

, in Baltimore, Maryland. Miller also lectured at Monmouth College

Monmouth College

Monmouth College is a four-year coeducational private liberal arts college located in Monmouth, Illinois, United States.-History:Monmouth College was founded on April 18, 1853 by the Second Presbytery of Illinois, a frontier arm of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church...

, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and Phillips Exeter Academy

Phillips Exeter Academy

Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...

.

Writing career

May Miller's entry into the cultural scene of the Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke...

 began with the publishing of her play The Bog Guide in 1925. Her work claimed third place in the play category for Opportunity magazine's Literary Prize Contest in 1925. Miller sought through her writing to portray black people with a level of respect and dignity that had absent in drama. Inspired by the work of the Chicago Imagists

Chicago Imagists

The Chicago Imagists is the name of a group of representational artists associated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who exhibited at the Hyde Park Art Center in the late 1960s. Their work was known for grotesquerie, surrealism and complete uninvolvement with New York art world trends...

 and Archibald Macleish

Archibald MacLeish

Archibald MacLeish was an American poet, writer, and the Librarian of Congress. He is associated with the Modernist school of poetry. He received three Pulitzer Prizes for his work.-Early years:...

, Miller turn her writing towards poetry in the 1940s.

Works

Poetry

• Into the Clearing (The Charioteer Press, 1959)
• Poems (Cricket Press, 1962)
• Lyrics of Three Women (Linden Press, 1964)
• Not That Far (The Solo Press, 1973) ISBN 9780941490122
• The Clearing and Beyond (The Charioteer Press, 1974)
• Dust of Uncertain Journey (Lotus Press, 1975) ISBN 9780916418052
• Halfway to the Sun (Washington Writers Publishing House
  Washington Writers Publishing House
  Washington Writers' Publishing House is a cooperative, member-run, non-profit small press publishing poetry and fiction. The press was founded by Grace Cavalieri and John McNally in 1973 to publish authors who live in the Washington-Baltimore region....
  
  , 1981)
• The Ransomed Wait (Lotus Press, 1983) ISBN 9780916418403
• Collected Poems (Lotus Press, 1989) ISBN 9780916418700

Plays

• The Bog Guide - 1925
• Scratches - 1929
• Stragglers in the Dust - 1930
• Nails and Thorns - 1933