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Wendy Miles, M.F.A.

Wendy MilesSchool of Humanities and Social Sciences
Assistant Professor of English
English Club (Faculty Advisor)
Sigma Tau Delta (Faculty Advisor)
Elsie E. Bock Writing Award (Committee Chair)
Hopwood #14A
434.544.8154
miles.w@lynchburg.edu

Education and Certifications

  • M.F.A., Creative Writing - fiction, Bowling Green State University, 1993
  • B.A., 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

  • 2012 Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Ron Rash Volume - poetry
    "Trees I Don't Know," forthcoming, 2012

  • Caesura - poetry
    "Voice," forthcoming, 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 100thbirthday), 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 . . .