Museum of the Americas, Gary Lee Miller’s debut story collection, published in 2014 by Fomite Press, 通过高度非传统角色的经历来思考爱、渴望、失去和救赎, the kind of people who, says Miller, “nobody pays much attention to.”
Steve Almond called the collection, ‘vivid and arresting.他说，这些故事“带有一种温和的寓言性，随着米勒探究人类心理而变得更加黑暗。.”
米勒的新短篇小说《hg888皇冠》出现在2015年冬季刊 The Missouri Review and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He’s currently working on a novel, 他希望今年9月在伍德斯托克的Byrdcliffe Artists Colony完成他的第二次驻留, NY.
Miller grew up in the 70s and 80s, in Eldred, Pennsylvania, 坐落在阿勒格尼河畔的一个约800人的小镇, in what he recalls as ‘a storytelling culture.’
“我爸爸是个酒鬼，我五岁的时候，在酒吧里，我坐在他旁边喝橘子汽水, listening to all the hunters, fisherman and factory workers tell their stories. 讲故事是那里生活的重要组成部分，这些人就有. 他们有时机，知道什么该说，什么不该说. They had irony and description.
“I sat and listened to them and it was fantastic. 我后来上了大学，想成为一名野生动物生物学家，但我的数学和化学很糟糕.” Miller, who worked to pay his own way through college, 挣扎了三年，最后因为没钱而退学. “我当时住在纽约北部，找不到工作……我不知道该怎么办。. My roommate said, ‘Look, you don’t have to be in college to learn stuff. Go to the library and read books.’”
米勒接受了这个建议，一本书一本书地浏览了当地图书馆的小说区.
“I loved it. Within a few months I was writing. 我大四的时候回来，改学了英语专业. I did the entire English major in a year. I got straight A’s…I had a teacher who said, “你知道你有一点天赋，如果你更加努力, you can do something with it.“那个人，那个人，是我生命中第一个对我说‘你能做点什么’的人. You’re a good writer.’”
米勒在蒙彼利埃的佛蒙特美术学院(Vermont College of Fine Arts)获得了艺术硕士学位，他和他的伴侣以及十几岁的女儿住在蒙彼利埃. Miller says he has had great teachers, Steve Almond and Ellen Lesser among them, 但他将自己的写作热情归功于“在一个喜欢讲故事的文化环境中长大”.’
米勒的许多故事都发生在宾夕法尼亚州的农村地区. His story ideas “come from things I’m obsessed with or things that happened to me. 我从来不会直接讲述发生在我身上的事情，我只是选取其中的一小部分，然后创造一个完全不同的故事.”
In the title story, “Museum of the Americas,” which displays curated samples of earth, “我开车穿过佛蒙特州，决定走一条小路. 我开车经过这个地方，有一个标志写着“美洲博物馆”. 外面有两辆车，我想, ‘What a bizarre thing, 美洲博物馆坐落在农业国家中部的这条小路上.“我向自己保证，我永远不会去看里面是什么. I’d just make it up.”
In the resulting story, 汤姆·格兰特(Tom Grant)拥有一个破旧的、几乎被遗忘的博物馆展览, in rows of Bell jars, 他从他父亲那里继承了美洲各地的地球样本. 他还继承了一套严格的“基督教”价值观和被虐待的可怕记忆. When an elderly couple visits the museum, 通过一个特殊的地球样本与他们死去的儿子联系, 汤姆精心构建的世界开始瓦解. Tom at first refuses them, 但他们的追求最终迫使他直面自己的缺点和渴望.
《hg888皇冠手机版》以叙述者的身份探讨了酗酒对情感和心理的摧残, on a seven-week long bender, 想到他叔叔的毒瘾和那个人通过他的奉献收集蝴蝶的康复. He is home, in the house where he grew up, 像母亲一样寻找自己的“救星”, downstairs, calls doctors and “drunk farms”, hoping to find a placement for him.
Several of Miller’s stories, set so carefully in place and time, edge toward the magical, while others, including Night Train, Killing Houdini and Certain Miracles 将抒情融入传统现实主义和历史事件中. 短篇小说爱好者可能会嗅到罗素·班克斯(Russell Banks)的气息, Bonnie Jo Campbell, 丹尼斯·约翰逊和丹尼尔·伍德雷尔的作品, but Miller offers a bit more lyricism in his prose, 在他的决心中也多了一点温柔.
即便如此，米勒的hg888皇冠之路还是充满了失望和退稿. Before assembling his story collection, 他写了两部小说，并与“一个非常有实力的纽约经纪人”签了约, top of the line.’
“他看着我说，‘加里，我现在要告诉你一件事. There is going to be a happy ending to your story. These books are going to be published.’”
在两年的时间里，这位经纪人尽其所能“让这件事发生，但他做不到……那是一段毁灭性的时光。. I didn’t write for another two years.”
Finally, he sent one of his novels to Fomite Press, 一家位于佛蒙特州的小hg888皇冠商在其网站上描述自己s “这是一种后资本主义的经营方式，作者几乎获得了所有的利润, and Fomite gets little or nothing beyond expenses. We have no plans to make money with the press, 只有通过推出高水平的文学作品并使之得以传播，才能服务于文学界.”
hg888皇冠商马克·埃斯特林(Marc Estrin)很快回复了米勒. “他说，‘你是个好作家，但我不喜欢这本书……你还有别的吗?’?“我把我的故事集发给了他，一天后他发邮件给我说, ‘I love this book and I want to publish it. Will you please let me publish it?’ I said yes.”
他的第一部诗集hg888皇冠了，一部小说也进入了创作的最后阶段, 米勒对有抱负的年轻作家提出了这样的建议:“不要等着世界来告诉你什么时候你是一个作家, just write. Start writing, send your stuff out. 与杂志和其他作家建立关系，并一直阅读. You can’t be a writer if you don’t read. 找一本你喜欢的书，试着弄清楚它是如何运作的. 通读这本书，从头到尾写一遍，做笔记，在你喜欢的句子下面划线.
坚持，不要放弃，继续写作，不要害怕. 找一份报纸，找一个可以让你为他们写文章的博客，把你的作品写出来. Just start being a writer. 现在就说出来，说你现在是一个作家，并成为一个作家. That’s number one. And persist is number two. 你不写作的每一分钟，别人都在竞争.”