Mary Miller selected Hemingway-Pfeiffer writer-in-residence

Mary Miller of Oxford, Miss., has been selected as the 2021 writer-in-residence at the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum & Educational Center in Piggott. HPMEC is an Arkansas State University Heritage Site.

According to Dr. Adam Long, executive director of the A-State Heritage Sites, the residency runs July 6 through Aug. 2. The position is made possible by an underwriting sponsorship by Piggott State Bank.

Miller will reside in a loft apartment on the downtown square in Piggott over the City Market coffee shop. The residency includes a $1,000 stipend to help cover food and transportation.

According to a news release, the writer-in-residence is expected to serve as a mentor for a week-long retreat for writers at the educational center.  The retreat will be open from 8-10 a.m. for writers from the region.

Miller grew up in Jackson, Miss. She is the author of two collections of short stories, “Big World” (Short Flight/Long Drive Books, 2009), and “Always Happy Hour “(Liveright, 2017), as well as the novels “The Last Days of California” (Liveright, 2014) and “Biloxi” (Liveright, 2019). Her stories have appeared in The Paris Review, Pushcart Prize XLIV, the Oxford American, Norton’s Seagull Book of Stories, The Best of McSweeney’s Quarterly, American Short Fiction and many others.

She is a former James A. Michener Fellow in Fiction at the University of Texas and John and Renée Grisham writer-in-residence at the University of Mississippi.

The residency will allow Miller to live and work in Piggott for a month, sharing her knowledge and experience with local writers and working on her own writings.

HPMEC tours start on the hour Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.