“Every poem in College Town seems conceived in a climate of generosity and wonder. Poems such as “Soprano,” “Birth” or “The Chief” embody that most elusive of experiences in art, the “replaying” of innocence. Others, such as “Host,” “The Artist” or the title piece, somehow manage to invoke dark wisdom and irony without a hint of cynicism. So thankful is Miller for his thankless town, he asks only, “Let the band play ragged when they lay me to rest.” This book not only entertains, it forgives.”
—Brendan Constantine
“In his extraordinary first collection, Michael Miller wrings a spare and astonishing beauty from the most ordinary of settings. His finely crafted poems pull us into a dreamlike kaleidoscope, bombard us with image and nuance. We travel his “city awake on tea and subtitles,” walk his frayed neighborhoods and back streets, wander his desert, are captured by intense glimpses of his characters. In College Town, the soundtrack is blues, playing faintly in the background as we read on: loneliness etched with love, the tenderness of ashes.”
—Ricki Mandeville
“Poetry needs Michael Miller. Indeed, anyone able to write a powerfully spare pair of lines like “He tells himself, Nothing but a woman, / tells himself, We scavenge together” rewards the reader and honors the craft. The power of Miller’s writing is in his imagery, syntactical skills, and ability to capture the now of the experiential terrain. And although the image, the bright, focused instant, is never more than a line or two away, such moments of sound and sense, for ear and eye—“ocean breeze and the crash of the fountain”—are certain to surprise and excite.”
—Lee Mallory
