Wendy Miles, MFA

Education and Certifications

• MFA, Creative Writing - fiction, Bowling Green State University, 1993
• BA, English, Lynchburg College, 1990

Experience

• August 2009 - present - Lynchburg College, Assistant Professor of English
• August 2006 -2009 - Randolph College (founded as Randolph-Macon Woman's College in 1891), Assistant Professor of English
• 2004-2006 - Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Instructor
• August 1991 - May 1995 - Bowling Green State University, Instructor

Publications

• Richmond Magazine - poetry
  "Egg," April 2012, 1st-place winner of the James River Writers Best Poetry Contest 2012 judged by poet Joshua Poteat
• Hunger Mountain - poetry
  Special mention in the 2012 Ruth Stone Poetry Prize judged by poet Dorianne Laux
• 2012 Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Ron Rash Volume - poetry
  "Trees I Don't Know," 2012
• Caesura - poetry 
  "Voice," 2011
• The Pedestal Magazine - poetry and fiction
  "Still Lives," poetry: Issue 65: Aug. 21 - Oct. 21, 2011 -- w/audio 
  "Allegiance," short-short story: Issue 38: February-March 2007
• Water Lines: Poems Inspired by the Water Marks Exhibition at the Maier Museum of Art - poetry 
  "H-Bomb Testing in Japan or Souls, We Hope, Float Away" after Ben Shahn's "It's No Use to Do Anymore," September 2009
• Southern Poetry Review - poetry 
  "Swan," 2009, Volume 47:1 
  "The Thing Itself," 2006, Volume 44:1
• Arts & Letters Journal of Contemporary Culture - creative nonfiction 
  "Smoke," Issue Twenty: Fall/Winter 2008
• storySouth - poetry 
  "Proximity," Issue 24: Winter 2008
• The Yalobusha Review - poetry 
  "Regarding the Redbud," Volume XIII, 2008
• The Dos Passos Review - poetry 
  "Family Album: Scenes from Boxes One and Two" and "Mezzo Morto," Spring 2007, Volume 4, Number 1 "One Night, the Rabbits," Spring 2005, volume 2, Number 2
• The Comstock Review - poetry
  "You Be the Poet" and "A Note Left," Spring/Summer 2006, Volume 20: Number 1
• Image/Word: a book of poems - poetry
  "They Have Not," 2005
• The Chattahoochee Review - poetry
  "Big Deal in Yellow," Spring 1999, Volume XIX, Number 3
• Hawaii Review - poetry
  "The Miners," Spring/Summer 1997, Issue 48: Volume 20.3
• The Heartlands Today - poetry
  "The Mother and Daughter" and "Because We Move," 1995, Volume 5

Presentations

• "Panel of Lynchburg College Poets," part of the Geraldine Lyon Owens Lecture Series, Lynchburg College, March 2010
• Poetry reading with poet Claudia Emerson, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, Va., June 2009
• Presentation and reading of Eudora Welty's selected works (in celebration of Welty's 100^thbirthday), Maier Museum of Art, Randolph College, April 13, 2009
• Poetry reading, Randolph College, Faculty "Works in Progress" series, March 2008
• Poetry reading with poet Gary Short, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, Va., January 2008
• Poetry reading, featuring authors from Image/Word: a book of poems, Randolph-Macon Woman's College, September 2005
• Poetry reading, Riverviews Artspace, Lynchburg, VA, February 2005
• Poetry reading, "Documenting Poetry: Contemporary Latin American Photography," Maier Museum of Art, Randolph-Macon Woman's College, February 2005

Professional Development

• Colrain Intensive weekend poetry conference, Springfield, Mass., July 2011
• Napa Valley Writers' Conference, St. Helena, Calif., July - August 2007
• Nebraska Summer Writers' Conference, Lincoln, Neb., June 2007
• Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership career-building workshop, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, Va., June 2006
• Hassayampa Institute for Creative Writing, Prescott, Ariz., July 2006
• Mid-Atlantic Creative Nonfiction Summer Writers' Conference, Goucher College, Towson, Md., August 2006

Teaching Areas

• Advanced Creative Writing (poetry and fiction)
• Creative Nonfiction (writing memoir, personal essay, and literary journalism)
• Introduction to Creative Writing (poetry, fiction and drama)
• Poetry in Response to Photography (a yearlong independent study)
• Literature and Culture II
• The Literature of Growing Up
• Imaginative Writing
• All levels of Composition

Honors and Awards

• Selected to attend a Colrain Intensive - "a small... highly selective master conference" designed for the poet who has "... a book-length (or chapbook-length) poetry manuscript that has placed as finalist, semi-finalist, or has received feedback from a publisher that it is close to publication," July 2011
• Pushcart Prize nominee, poetry, 2010 and 2009
• Semi-finalist, two poetry 1st-book awards, 2008-09: Zone 3 Press and Persea Press
• Finalist for Southwest Review's 2009 Morton Marr Poetry Prize for formal poetry
• Poetry Fellowships: Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, Va.: May/June 2009, August/September 2008, December 2007/January 2008, May 2007, October 2006 and April 1997
• Prairie Schooner poetry scholarship to attend the 2007 Nebraska Summer Writers' Conference
• Finalist for Southern Poetry Review's 2007 Guy Owen Prize
• A Room of Her Own Foundation poetry scholarship to attend the 2007 Taos Summer Writers' Conference (conflict-could not attend)
• Randolph College Professional Development Grant to attend both the Nebraska Summer Writers' Conference and Napa Valley Writers' Conference, 2007
• Randolph-Macon Woman's College Professional Development Grant: Hassayampa Institute for Creative Writing conference, July 2006
• Virginia Commission for the Arts grant: provided to Virginia writers attending the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts/Woodhull workshop, June 2006

Professional Affiliations

• Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP)
• Third Thursday Planning Committee, Riverviews Artspace, Lynchburg, Va., concerned with selection of writers for its Third Thursday reading series, 2007-2008

Personal Information

Interests: Even though my M.F.A. is in fiction, I write mostly poems and essays. One current focus in my poetry is atmosphere -- somewhere near the intersection of Southern Gothic and dreamscape.
Favorite smells: black walnut, hay, vine-ripe tomato
Favorite author: Eudora Welty - Hear me read an excerpt from Welty's short story, "Why I Live at the P.O," at Maier Museum of Art's celebration of  Ms. Welty's 100th birthday, April 2009 
Three ambitions: making a visually stunning - and delicious - version of "Mashula's Coconut Cake" (a recipe from Eudora Welty's first novel, Delta Wedding), publishing my first collection of poems, remaining off Facebook for as long as possible ...