Meet Alabama Author Anita Miller Garner
Posted: Nov 23, 2009This week Swampland reviews Anita Miller Garner's recently published collection of short stories: Undeniable Truths. Garner is a professor of English at the University of North Alabama where she teaches creative writing and southern literature, among other courses. Her stories have appeared in numerous publications including First Draft, published by the Alabama Writers Forum.
Born in rural Coosa County, Garner received the MFA in fiction from the University of Alabama, attended the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, and taught at Virginia Commonwealth University before moving back to her native state.
She is a founding member and past president of Alabama Writers’ Forum, a grassroots organization promoting creative writing across the state. She founded and continues to serve as coordinator of the statewide High School Literary Awards. She has twice served as a member of the Speakers’ Bureau of the Alabama Humanities Foundation and travels the Southeast promoting the fiction of Alabama women writers.
Garner has has presented and published critical scholarship on the works of Ellen Gilchrist, Eudora Welty, Rebecca Gilman, Shay Youngblood, Michelle Richmond, Carson McCullers, Phyllis Alesia Perry, and many others.
Here is what Garner has to say about her new book on her blogsite "Talking in Accents" about Undeniable Truths. released November 1, 2009.
" No one could ask for an easier, more fun publishing experience than working with Carter Monroe and Rank Stranger Press. I still cannot figure out why a post-avant poet (Carter) would spend time and energy publishing a Deep South and rather conventional short story collection. Carter's own signature poetic persona is Billy Putrid: think [John} Berryman's Dream Song narrator with a punk rock slant. I think of my own narrators--dog killers, forgetful ghosts, wistful country music musicians--and scratch my head. One thing is for sure: Carter can't walk a straight conversational line. If he calls to talk "business", before he is two sentences into the conversation, he will be telling me about the local North Carolina sausage he ate for breakfast. Or singing the lyrics to some obscure blues song. "
After reading the review of Undeniable Truths, we know you will want to rush out and buy the book and, no doubt, purchase copies for all your friends for Christmas.
---Penne J. Laubenthal.
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