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Image courtesy of publisher's website. Photo credit: John Tsiavis
Alex Miller Alex Miller i(A12971 works by) (a.k.a. Alexander McPhee Miller)
Born: Established: 1936 London,
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England,
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United Kingdom (UK),
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Western Europe, Europe,
;
Gender: Male
Arrived in Australia: 1952
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Works By

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1 3 y separately published work icon The Deal Alex Miller , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2024 28337082 2024 single work novel

'It's 1975, and at the threshold of his writing career Andy McPherson is navigating how to be fully present both for his partner, Jo, and their young daughter.

'When forced to take a part-time teaching job Andy meets Lang Tzu, a charismatic and intriguing man. Andy is drawn deeper into a dangerous relationship when Lang asks him to prove his friendship by brokering a risky deal for a much-desired piece of art. Andy finally consents despite Jo's opposition. In the process, Andy is in fact negotiating his own deal with himself as an artist and is compelled to face up to the conflict between his conception of art as a creative gift and the realities of the art market.

'Powerful and perceptive, Miller's profound and intimate depiction of Jo and her partnership with Andy, and his poignant portrait of Lang's troubled genius, form the beating heart of this beautiful novel.' (Publication summary)

1 5 y separately published work icon A Kind of Confession : The Writer's Private World Alex Miller , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2023 26831465 2023 single work autobiography 'A deeply personal, behind-the-scenes exploration of Alex Miller's six-decade writing life. A Kind of Confession is a secret look into Alex Miller's writing life, spanning sixty years of creativity and inspiration. As a young man in 1961 Miller left his work as a ringer in Queensland and set out to achieve his dream of becoming a serious novelist. It was not until 1988 that his first novel, Watching the Climbers on the Mountain, was published. Twelve more novels would follow, all bestsellers, many published internationally. This selection from his notebooks and letters makes it exhilaratingly evident that Miller has been devoted to finding and telling stories that are profound, substantial and entertaining, stories that capture both intellect and emotion. Miller's fascinating life is told in a personal, behind-the-scenes exploration of his struggle to become a published writer, his determination, his methods of creative thought and the sources of his inspiration. His writing, sometimes in anger and despair, sometimes with humour and joy, whether created for publication or for private meditation, is alive with ideas, moral choices, commentary, encouragement, criticism and love.' (Publication summary)
1 5 y separately published work icon A Brief Affair Alex Miller , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2022 24974093 2022 single work novel 'From the bustling streets of China, to the ominous Cell 16 in an old asylum building, to the familiar sounds and sight of galahs flying over a Victorian farm, A Brief Affair is a tender love story. On the face of it, Dr Frances Egan is a woman who has it all-a loving family and a fine career until a brief, perfect affair reveals to her an imaginative dimension to her life that is wholly her own. Fran finds the courage and the inspiration to risk everything and change her direction at the age of forty-two. This newfound understanding of herself is fortified by the discovery of a long-forgotten diary from the asylum and the story it reveals. Written with humour, sensitivity and the wisdom for which Miller's work is famous, this exquisitely compassionate novel explores the interior life and the dangerous navigation of love in all its forms.' (Publication summary)
1 A Woman Alone Alex Miller , 2021 single work short story
— Appears in: Griffith Review , April no. 72 2021; (p. 145-158)
1 Chasing Ghosts of a Broken Past Alex Miller , 2020 extract biography (Max)
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 3 October 2020; (p. 16)
1 5 y separately published work icon Max Alex Miller , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2020 19845096 2020 single work biography

'I began to see that whatever I might write about Max, discover about him, piece together with those old shards of memory, it would be his influence on the friendships of the living that would frame his story in the present.

'According to your 1939 Gestapo file, you adopted the cover names Landau and Maxim. The name your mother and father gave you was Moses. We knew you as Max. You had worked in secret. From an early age you concealed yourself - like the grey box beetle in the final country of your exile, maturing on its journey out of sight beneath the bark of the tree.

'You risked death every day. And when at last the struggle became hopeless, you escaped the hell and found a haven in China first, and then Australia, where you became one of those refugees who, in their final place of exile, chose not death but silence and obscurity.

'Alex Miller followed the faint trail of Max Blatt's early life for five years. Max's story unfolded, slowly at first, from the Melbourne Holocaust Centre's records then to Berlin's Federal Archives. From Berlin, Miller travelled to Max's old home town of Wroclaw in Poland. And finally in Israel with Max's niece, Liat Shoham, and her brother Yossi Blatt, at Liat's home in the moshav Shadmot Dvora in the Lower Galilee, the circle of friendship was closed and the mystery of Max's legendary silence was unmasked.

'Max is an astonishing and moving tribute to friendship, a meditation on memory itself, and a reminder to the reader that history belongs to humanity.' (Publication summary)

1 The Compound Alex Miller , 2020 single work short story
— Appears in: Griffith Review , February no. 67 2020; (p. 87-100)
1 Helen Garner, Peter Carey and Alexis Wright on What They're Reading in November Beau Donelly , Nick Toscano , Fiona Wright , Garry Disher , Kári Gíslason , Richard Fidler , Alex Miller , Alexis Wright , A. S. Patrić , Peter Carey , Helen Garner , 2017 single work
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 22 November 2017;
1 5 y separately published work icon The Passage of Love Alex Miller , Sydney : Allen and Unwin , 2017 11529104 2017 single work novel

'Sitting in a New York park, an old man holds a book and tries to accept that his contribution to the future is over. Instead, he remembers a youthful yearning for open horizons, for Australia, a yearning he now knows inspired his life as a writer. Instinctively he picks up his pen and starts at the beginning . . .

'At twenty-one years, Robert Croft leaves his broken dreams in Far North Queensland, finally stopping in Melbourne almost destitute. It's there he begins to understand how books and writing might be the saving of him. They will be how he leaves his mark on the world. He also begins to understand how many obstacles there will be to thwart his ambition. When Robert is introduced to Lena Soren, beautiful, rich and educated, his life takes a very different path. But in the intimacy of their connection lies an unknowability that both torments and tantalises as Robert and Lena long for something that neither can provide for the other. In a rich blend of thoughtful and beautifully observed writing, the lives of a husband and wife are laid bare in their passionate struggle to engage with their individual creativity.'

source: Publisher's blurb.

1 Alex Miller Alex Miller , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: #SaveOzStories 2016;

'The Coalition Government has rightly made much recently of its policy to promote growth and jobs through its support of small and medium-size Australian businesses. The Australian publishing industry is made up of hundreds of small and medium-sized businesses. The independent Australian publishing industry, on which printers and allied trades also rely for much of their work, directly and indirectly employs thousands of skilled and professional workers. Abolishing territorial copyright would place Australian publishing at an impossible business disadvantage in relation to its overseas competitors. Some publishers would almost certainly be driven to the wall. An essential of any modern civilised nation is a robust independent publishing industry which can offer to the reading public the stories of its writers. The cultural independence and richness of any nation depends on the writers who tell the stories of that nation.' (Introduction)

1 Untitled i "I made a mistake", Alex Miller , 2016 single work poetry
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 75 no. 2 2016; (p. 41)
1 4 y separately published work icon The Simplest Words : A Storyteller's Journey Alex Miller , Stephanie Miller , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2015 9148454 2015 selected work short story prose autobiography poetry

'The Simplest Words is Alex Miller's first collection of stories, memoir, commentary and poetry.

'All of Alex Miller's novels have been critically acclaimed and have won or been shortlisted in the major Australian literary awards. He is twice winner of Australia's premier literary prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, and is an overall winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for The Ancestor Game. His eleventh and most recent novel, Coal Creek, won the 2014 Victorian Premier's Literary Award.

'Alex Miller is published internationally and his works have been widely translated.' (Publication summary)

1 Sophie's Choice Alex Miller , 2014 single work criticism
— Appears in: A Sense for Humanity : The Ethical Thought of Raimond Gaita 2014;
1 Song of the Good Visa i "I was on a train going somewhere", Alex Miller , 2014 single work poetry
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 25-26 January 2014; (p. 20-21)
1 1 Asylum : A Secure Place of Refuge Alex Miller , 2013 single work essay
— Appears in: A Country Too Far : Writings on Asylum Seekers 2013; (p. 191-193)
1 A Circle of Kindred Spirits Alex Miller , 2013 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 73 no. 3 2013; (p. 13-23)
1 Books of the Year Stephen Romei , Graeme Blundell , James Bradley , Geraldine Brooks , Gabrielle Carey , Peter Carey , Stella Clarke , Miriam Cosic , Peter Craven , Tegan Bennett Daylight , Michelle De Kretser , Delia Falconer , Tim Flannery , David Free , Peter Goldsworthy , Andy Griffiths , Gideon Haigh , Helen Garner , Sonya Hartnett , Ashley Hay , Evelyn Juers , Thomas Keneally , Richard King , Ramona Koval , David Malouf , Alex Miller , Louis Nowra , Peter Pierce , Felicity Plunkett , Nicolas Rothwell , Jaya Savige , Kirsten Tranter , Geordie Williamson , Tim Winton , Ed Wright , Fiona Wright , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 21-22 December 2013; (p. 14-18)
3 15 y separately published work icon Coal Creek Alex Miller , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2013 6452235 2013 single work novel (taught in 1 units)

'"Me and Ben had been mates since we was boys and if it come to it I knew I would have to be on his side."

Bobby Blue is caught between loyalty to his only friend, Ben Tobin, and his boss, Daniel Collins, the new Constable at Mount Hay. 'Ben was not a big man but he was strong and quick as a snake. He had his own breed of pony that was just like him, stocky and reliable on their feet.' Bobby understands the people and the ways of Mount Hay; Collins studies the country as an archaeologist might, bringing his coastal values to the hinterland. Bobby says, 'I do not think Daniel would have understood Ben in a million years.' Increasingly bewildered and goaded to action by his wife, Constable Collins takes up his shotgun and his Webley pistol to deal with Ben. Bobby's love for Collins' wilful young daughter Irie is exposed, leading to tragic consequences for them all.

Miller's exquisite depictions of the country of the Queensland highlands form the background of this simply told but deeply significant novel of friendship, love, loyalty and the tragic consequences of misunderstanding and mistrust. Coal Creek is a wonderfully satisfying novel with a gratifying resolution. It carries all the wisdom and emotional depth we have come to expect from Miller's richly evocative novels.' (Publisher's blurb)

1 Nothing Remains the Same Alex Miller , 2013 extract novel
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 31 August - 1 September 2013; (p. 20-21)
'Friendship, love, loyalty, trust and duty collide in Coal Creek, the new novel by dual Miles Franklin winner Alex Miller.'
1 The Biographer Alex Miller , 2013 single work short story
— Appears in: Review of Australian Fiction , vol. 6 no. 5 2013;
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