novels
Cold Grace
Honno, 2025
'an engrossing and evocative portrait of a brutal world'
- Ben Woolhead, Buzz News
The sense of place and natural world is beautifully created and so essential in this tale, sitting in the background yet forever a part of these people. A matter of fact telling balances against the eloquence of the story, as it looks at what happens to those who slip through the net of conformity. This novel will stay with me ... Cold Grace is an unforgettably heartbreaking tale of love and family, set in a time that feels as though its a featherlight touch away. Highly recommended.
- Liz Robinson, LoveReading
I was absolutely consumed by it and read it in one sitting. Miller's descriptions of place and character - and feelings - drew me into a world I simply didn't want to leave. I found myself returning to sentences and passages just for the pleasure of re-reading her words...
- Kathy Biggs, author of The Luck
Fall River
Honno, 2024
This is fine writing....urgent and melancholy...impressive, lyrical, rich...
- Niall Griffiths, Nation Cymru
...stirringly sublime and supremely sentient...
- Claire Janet Mason, The Fallen Librarian Reviews
Fall River is a masterful and devastating exploration of the ties binding a small town together.
- Carole Hailey, author of The Silence
A beautifully disquieting, multi-perspectival story of a Cornish community scarred by its industrial past.
- Elaine Canning, Cultural Institute Swansea
How We Learned to Lie
Harper, 2018
"Miller's tale offers a stunning portrayal of platonic love, the forces that push people apart and the pains of growing out into the world. The plot unravels slowly, woven in beautiful prose."
- Kirkus Reviews
"Miller's vivd, haunting writing is filled with prose gems."
- Publisher's Weekly
"the leisurely pace and lyrical prose of this poignant literary novel invite readers to drift in the wake of the losses Joan and Daisy are just realizing . . . intimately recognizable on a profound level by sensitive readers"
- Karen Coats, BCCB
You can order How We Learned to Lie on all major websites, but why not be a good egg and do it here?
Little Wrecks
Harper, 2017
This coming-of-age tale is crafted in a New American Gothic style that is impeccable in its execution. The reader is thrust into the inner worlds of breathless anticipation, giddy reeling, blurred reality, drawn-out ennui, and unstaunchable rages with which teens are blessed and afflicted.. . . any reader interested in the inner world of girls on the brink of womanhood in a man’s world will be spellbound.
- Liz Sundermann, VOYA
a buildup reminiscent of Joyce Carol Oates' Foxfire
- Ilana Lucas, Brit.co
Darkly thought-provoking reflections on modern gender politics.
- Kirkus Reviews
short stories
Here are a few recent and past short stories, a couple of which you can read online
Not from an Astronomer
A story in which I imagine into the gaps in what we know about Caroline Herschel, recently published online by the wonderful Fairlight Books. The italicised lines are from a letter Lina Herschel wrote to Joseph Banks on the discovery of one of her (eight) comets.
The story will soon be in print in issue 6 of Tamarind, a very special literary magazine curated by physicists. In the meanwhile, you can read it online here.
Close in Time, Space or Order
This story was shortlisted for the 2022 Rhys Davies Story Prize. You can read it here in the prize anthology, published by Parthian Books. If you buy or borrow it, don't miss Daniel Strogen's story 'Cracked/Duck', which is the star of the shortlist for me. I assign that story in my classes now.
I remember that at the time I wrote 'Close in Time, Space or Order' I was reading Joyce Carol Oates' novel Blonde (which disappointed me in the end) and wanted to write a story about the fantasmatic mother. I'd also read Brenda Chamberlain's amazing short story, 'The Return' and admired it's dramatic structure.
1977, or so
This was my first published short story. It was published in the journal Short Fiction, which was a fine venue during its brief print run supported by Plymouth University. I remember getting my author copy and feeling proud to be published alongside all the other really strong work in this issue. You can read the story in the online archive here.
