Background
May Miller was born in Washington, District of Columbia, to Kelly and Anna May Miller, one of the Millers" five children.
May Miller was born in Washington, District of Columbia, to Kelly and Anna May Miller, one of the Millers" five children.
While attending Dunbar High School Miller studied under the writers Mary P. Burrill and Angelina Weld Grimke.
Miller became known as the most widely published female playwright of the Harlem Renaissance, with seven published volumes of poetry during her career as a writer Early years
Miller began writing poetry at an early age, buying a pair of earrings with her first earnings. Harlem Renaissance era
May Miller"s entry into the cultural scene of the Harlem Renaissance began with the publishing of her play The Bog Guide in 1925.
Miller sought through her writing to portray black people with a level of respect and dignity that had been absent in drama.
Inspired by the work of the Chicago Imagists and Archibald Macleish, Miller turned her writing towards poetry in the 1940s. Miller did graduate work in poetry and drama at American University and Columbia University, followed by twenty years teaching English and speech at Frederick Douglass High School, in Baltimore, Maryland.
Miller also lectured at Monmouth College, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and Phillips Exeter Academy.