Chloe Yelena Miller, Writer & Writing Teacher

Moving Day

2025-11-18T18:54:00.001-05:00

I've moved over to Substack. I hope you'll follow me there for news about my second poetry collection, Perforated, and more. Today I shared the cover, which I'm very excited about.

I'm happy to follow you back, too, of course!

See you there:

https://chloeyelenamiller.com

https://chloeyelenamiller.substack.com/

Spring Online Poetry Workshop: Seats Open

2025-11-14T06:35:00.003-05:00

I'm excited to share that applications are now open for my spring poetry workshop!

This semester's small group has been wonderful; I'm looking forward to welcoming new voices into the conversation.

Here's what we'll do together:

Monthly workshops on Wednesdays, 12-2 PM EST via Zoom
Individual conferences each month to focus on your work
Deep engagement with a community of just four poets

This intimate format allows for the kind of sustained attention and meaningful feedback that's hard to find elsewhere. We'll have time to dig into craft, explore your creative process, and support each other's growth as writers.

Application details: Admission is rolling—we'll accept poets through December 15 or until all four spots are filled, whichever comes first. Please note that there's a discount for Brown Bag Lit Lunch Break Writers members and financial assistance available.

I'd love to have you join us for the spring session!

More details here on the Brown Bag Lit website.

DC Writers on Courage

2025-11-03T12:07:00.005-05:00

I am very excited to be reading poetry (original and poems by others) in this upcoming reading:

We are pleased to invite you to the second iteration of Taking Heart: DC Writers on Courage, organized by the DC/MD chapter of Writers for Democratic Action. We will gather in the unique Dupont Underground art space (beneath Dupont Circle) on Sunday, November 16 at 2 p.m., to hear readings on the theme of courage in times of great uncertainty and peril, from a marvelous line-up of authors:

Olga Grushin

Celeste Marcus

Leeya Mehta

Chloe Yelena Miller

Mikra Namani

Marina Omar

Quynh H. Vo

We will also be treated to a performance by the musical duo Dunia & Aram (Dunia Best and Aram Sinnreich).

Organized by Marguerite Feitlowitz & Paul Jaskunas (co-chairs, Writers for Democratic Action DC+MD Chapter)

Washington Writers' Publishing House & The Inner Loop Reading

2025-10-29T11:43:00.002-04:00

Thank you to editors Caroline Brock and Jona Colson for including my poem, English Vocabulary: Negation, in the new anthology, America's Future: poetry & prose in response to tomorrow, out from Washington Writers' Publishing House.

I will be reading with others published in the anthology at an event co-sponsored by The Inner Loop on Monday, Nov. 10th at 7 pm (arrive early for a good seat!) The reading will be at Shaw's Tavern (520 Florida Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001.)

Free registration here.

FEATURED READERS:

Jona Colson

Jayla Hart

Emily Holland

Beth Kanter

Courtney LeBlanc

Chloe Miller

Yvette Neisser

Kim Roberts

Jessica Robinson

Cesar Ruiz

Dan Vera

Jackie Walker

Caroline Bock

November Brown Bag Lit Event: Charlotte Taylor Fryar in Conversation with E. Ethelbert Miller

2025-10-27T09:58:00.002-04:00

If you are interested in research, history or essay writing, we think you'll love our next event!

Charlotte Taylor Fryar, author of Potomac Fever (Bellevue Literary Press), in conversation with E. Ethelbert Miller, about writing her essay collection and researching the environmental, racial and other histories of the Potomac River.

Thanks to The Inner Loop for partnering with us on this program!

Film Premiere: Baby Book

2025-10-21T09:12:00.005-04:00

I'm very excited to stream the Baby Book Film Premiere on Saturday, Oct 25, at 8PM EST (6:00 PM MT). You can purchase a ticket here ($10.00) to watch, too!

Baby Book is a collection of films, songs and dance collaborations that grew out of a selection of my poems from Viable (Lily Poetry Review Books) and Lauren Spavelko's music composition. I first saw some of the films and met the artists this spring at the Arts and Family Summit presented by Art Song Colorado and hosted at Colorado State University. The films are choreographed and performed by Nicole Asel and Madeline Harvey with film directors Tessa and Jacob Macher.

Watch the trailer here.

Next Brown Bag Lit Event: Lacey Dunham Visits

2025-10-06T11:42:00.001-04:00

Our October Brown Bag Lit event is going to be a great one and we hope you can join! The event is free and online. If you can't make it, we'll post the recording afterwards on our YouTube channel.

Lacey N. Dunham visits to read from The Belles (Simon & Schuster) and answer your questions about writing dark academia, finding the right agent, and surviving the emotional ups and downs of being a first-time author.

For my Smithie and other all women's college alum friends, Lacey attended Hollins College and this novel takes place at an all women's school. And if you like being scared, especially leading up to Halloween, this book is for you. You're going to love it.

Details:

Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025

12 – 1 pm EST online

#MovieKid Reviews #HorrorOctober

2025-10-03T08:04:00.001-04:00

Our child, #MovieKid, has been reviewing a movie every weekday in 2025 on his YouTube channel. Today he posted his 190th review! Congratulations, MovieKid!

This month, he's focusing on horror movies. So far, he's reviewed Psycho, Firestarter and Children of the Corn. If you haven't been following along, please subscribe to his channel and encourage him with likes and comments. He's always happy to take movie recommendations!

I've received a lot of questions about this project.

As a writer, I've been fascinated by how he watches the movies, analyzes them through the three acts and thinks about the storytelling. As a mom, I'm proud of how he organizes his list and work (watching the movie, editing the scenes together for the short reviews and posting them in a timely fashion.) He's learned a lot about editing and creating shorts, too.

Is this too much screen time? Sure. But he's creating something new, learning about a field he's interested in and having a good time. It all evens out. Plus, we've had lots of family movie nights and fun with related activities, like playing the Blockbuster game that's he's really good at.

Are the movies all appropriate for him? Surely not. Together with his dad (ok, mostly his dad), we decide which movies are appropriate and not for him to watch. He doesn't watch every scene and sometimes we fast forward through scenes. Time will pass, though, and one day he can watch them all!

Presenting at the 2025 Virtual Global Symposium on Pregnancy Loss

2025-09-28T05:54:00.001-04:00

I look forward to presenting at the 2025 Virtual Global Symposium on Pregnancy Loss on Friday, October 17. I will be on the Creative Writing & Projects panel that runs from 4:10 - 5:00.

I will be reading poems from Viable, a lyric memoir about a miscarriage and postpartum depression following a successful pregnancy. Composer Lauren Spavelko set some of these poems to music in her composition Baby Book.

Baby Book has since become a film project (with music and dance) headed by mezzo-soprano Nicole Asel and choreographer Madeline Harvey. They will both be on the panel, too, and we'll be sharing the poems and films together.

I hope you can join us for this free, online and interdisciplinary event. Register here.

Ekphrastic Reading at the IA&A at Hillyer on Oct. 30th with The Inner Loop

2025-09-24T12:56:00.002-04:00

I am very excited to have been invited by The Inner Loop to write in response to artwork at the IA&A at Hillyer! I will be reading with either other writers during the Ekphrastic Reading on October 30th.

I hope you can join us at the local art gallery for readings inspired by the exhibitions with conversation and refreshments! Register for your free tickets here.

Date and time:

Thursday, October 30 · 6pm EDT

Location:

IA&A at Hillyer (9 Hillyer Court Northwest Washington, DC 20008)

Join us for this special ekphrastic event at the gallery of IA&A at Hillyer, where writers in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry will read original works in response to the three exhibitions, which were curated by women and artists in the DMV area.

Doors open at 6:00 to enjoy the exhibits and readings will begin around 6:30pm. A bar and refreshments will be available throughout the event.

Exhibitions:

Écriture (Writing with the Body): Contemporary Korean Women’s Art, curated by Dr. Jung-Sil Lee and Dr. Koh Dong-Yeoh

Traces, curated by Laila Abdul-Hadi Jadallah

Landed, by Elizabeth Coffey

Readers:

In poetry: Chloe Yelena Miller, Nico Penaranda, Dylan Tran

In fiction: Javed Jahangir, Christina Tudor

In nonfiction: Patricia Coral, Angelina Morin, Courtney Sexton

Interview with DeMisty D. Bellinger

2025-09-18T13:48:00.000-04:00

Thank you so much to DeMisty D. Bellinger for chatting with me about her new short story collection, All Daughters Are Awesome Everywhere and earlier books (a novel and book of poems.) A prolific and multi-genre author, DeMisty offers some great writing craft advice in this interview recently published in Brown Bag Lit's Milk Journal. Writers - I hope you'll take a moment to read about her writing and revising tips and experiences.

I first met DeMisty at Bread Loaf Writers' Conference at Middlebury College in 2012. She was just as much of a literary force then as she is now. We've found each other at many writer's conferences and readings and she kindly invited me to read at Fitchburg State University, where she teaches. My students at American University were lucky to have her visit our class after reading her novel New To Liberty.

If you haven't read her books yet, consider this the nudge you need to start.

Megan Leonard's New Poetry Collection, Larkspur Queen

2025-09-06T08:29:00.007-04:00

Poet Megan Leonard's second collection, Larkspur Queen, is out! This book is gorgeous and I think you'll love it.

I wrote about it:

Megan Leonard’s second poetry collection, Larkspur Queen, centers six fabular queens in narrative poems, guided by shorter, meditative ones. Each poem contains the natural world and swaths of color that weave us into their (now spoken, rather than unspoken) inner lives. She asks in one poem, “what do we need but poetry,” as an answered statement. Throughout, solitude is something sought, a kind of protection from men and others’ needs, providing a vividness for the women in the poems. The reader, one of the cast of queens without kings, is ultimately brought to herself in this beautifully crafted collection.

We first met some years ago through the Cut & Paste Artist Residency in Motherhood led by Stella Fiore. Megan and her writing hold a special place in my heart not only because we were mothers of young children at the same time trying to write and work while parenting, but also because our first - and now second! - books were finished around the same time. Our books are "siblings," as she's written to me. Here we are reading from those first books through a Smith College alum reading in 2021. (We are also both Smithies!)

This is all to say, I think you, too, will love this poetry collection. I hope you'll have a chance to read it and encourage others to, as well.

If you are a poet and would like to discuss this book together, there's one seat open in my fall poetry writing workshop through Brown Bag Lit. Larkspur Queen is one of the four poetry collections we'll be reading together.

America's Future: poetry and prose in response to tomorrow

2025-09-05T09:48:00.003-04:00

Thank you to editors Caroline Brock and Jona Colson for including my poem, English Vocabulary: Negation, in the new anthology, America's Future: poetry & prose in response to tomorrow out from Washington Writers' Publishing House.

This anthology is filled with poetry and prose - and opens with Congressman Jamie Raskin's remarks as delivered at the Hands Off! Rally on the National Mall. This is the collection of work we need to build community, face pain and challenges and move forward.

I hope you will pick up a copy for yourself and attend one of the many readings happening this fall in the D.C. area and online.

I'll be joining other contributors on Monday, Nov. 10th, at the Shaw Tavern through the Inner Loop reading series! It would be lovely to see you there.

First Fall Brown Bag Lit Event!

2025-09-04T11:51:00.000-04:00

I'm very excited to hear DC poets Michael Gushue and Kim Roberts discuss their collaboration experience writing Q&A For the End of the World on Monday, September 15 (12 - 1 pm EST, online) over at Brown Bag Lit. I heard them read from their book this fall and they are not only both fantastic on their own, but also together. The collection is about their watching science fiction movies and then discussing the experience through poems.

As you might know, I'm mom to MovieKid who has been reviewing a movie a (week) day on his YouTube channel since the beginning of the year (hope you'll check them out!) We've been watching a lot of movies together as a family, including some sci fi movies. Let's just say that I see myself in some of Kim's poems' questions1

I hope you can join us - whether you're interested your own collaborative project (in any genre/art form), poetry in general or movies - I think you'll enjoy this free, online chat during your lunch break. Register here for your free ticket. See you there!

New Poetry Workshop

2025-08-08T11:16:00.003-04:00

Through Brown Bag Lit, the online writing community that Shasta Grant and I started, I am offering a new fall poetry writing workshop.

I developed this class with the small group, focused, joyful MFA writing workshop model in mind.

Four students and I will meet monthly to discuss published books of poetry and workshop student poems. I will also email additional feedback to each student and meet with them for monthly, individual conferences.

The class is by application only with rolling admissions. Since I'm capping student enrollment at four, seats are limited. Please apply today if you're interested in joining us! You can find all of the details and application questions here.

New Poem Published in Beltway Poetry

2025-08-05T08:15:00.001-04:00

Thank you to Indran Amirthanayagam and all of the editors at Beltway Poetry for sharing my poem, Happy New Year, in the latest issue, War and Peace. I hope that you will read the entire issue filled with poetry, prose, reviews and translations!

This poem will be in my new poetry collection, Perforated, due out from Lily Poetry Review Books this Jan!

Online Smith College Alum Poetry Reading Recording

2025-07-18T10:09:00.000-04:00

This was such a wonderful reading! Thank you to everyone who came. If you missed it, here's the recording.

I was so happy to read with Smith College alum poets Michele Evans ’94, Carolyn M. Mar ’05, Amanda Shaw ’97J, and Dara-Lyn Shrager ’89 through the Smith College Boutelle-Day Poetry Center on Sunday, July 13, at 4 pm EST online.

New Fall Politics and Prose Online Memoir Writing Class: Building Characters

2025-06-21T11:49:00.004-04:00

I'm excited to be back at Politics and Prose Bookstore this fall to teach an online memoir writing workshop. We'll be focusing on character development as we discuss - and write - memoir.

I'd love to see you in the class! Please register directly through the bookstore; don't hesitate to reach out to me with any questions: chloemiller(at)gmail(dot)com.

ONLINE CLASS: MEMOIR WRITING: BUILDING CHARACTERS

Three Thursdays: September 11, 18 and 25 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ET ONLINE

Do you have a story to tell? Interested in writing your story to understand it better? Join us to discuss and write memoir. We’ll talk about memoir broadly, write together and workshop scenes that build your characters for the reader.

If you are new to writing or have some writing experience, this class is for you. It will be a chance to deepen your understanding of the genre, meet other writers and workshop a scene.

Join us to discuss and practice:

Finding time to write

Generating ideas and new work

Considering moral and privacy considerations

Writing

Workshopping opening paragraphs

Editing & revising

Submitting your work for publication

Reading & Class Schedule:

Come to the first class having read Stephen King’s On Writing.

Please plan on sharing up to a paragraph before our second class so that we can review the submission together.

Baby Book Film Project

2025-06-02T14:18:00.000-04:00

Thank you to artists and professors Nicole Asel and Madeline Harvey for inviting me to the 2025 Arts and Family Summit presented by Art Song Colorado and hosted at Colorado State University. There, we celebrated art, motherhood, music, song, film and poetry with other creators and families alike.

Years ago, before Viable was published by Lily Poetry Review Books, composer Lauren Spavelko set some of poems to music in her composition, Baby Book. You can hear her songs and learn more about her work here.

More recently, Nicole and Madeline, along with students and film directors Tessa and Jacob Machmer, are transforming Baby Book into beautiful art films. You can watch some of them here.

I should probably be able to come up with a better word than "gobsmacked" to describe the experience of meeting these folks who have spent so much time with my words and Lauren's music, and then to see the films on a big screen, but that's the word I have for now.

Thank you for including me and inviting me to read the poems before the film showings and to record my readings to use in the films. I cannot wait to see how these (fairly wee!) poems continue to evolve and become new pieces of art.

Interview with Liza Achilles

2025-04-28T11:42:00.001-04:00

Happy Poetry Month! I have found myself too distracted to participate as much as I'd like to this month, but the good news is that poetry month is simply a reminder that poetry is always here with us! What are you reading (this month or any month)?

Today, I'm grateful to Liza Achilles for reading Viable (Lily Poetry Review) and interviewing me about the writing of the poetry collection. You can read the full interview here.

Liza recently visited us over at Brown Bag Lit to discuss her poetry collection Two Novembers: A Memoir of Love ’n’ Sex in Sonnets (Beltway Editions, 2024.) You can watch the recording here and read more from her on her website.

Last Brown Bag Lit Event of the Season!

2025-04-25T10:19:00.004-04:00

Shasta Grant and I are excited to announce our last Brown Bag Lit event of the season: Writing the Hybrid: The Boths & Betweens of Poetry & Prose with Ellene Glenn Moore and Miranda Schmidt! Register for our free, online event here and please share with friends, too!

I know that my own writing sometimes settles into a sort of in-between space of both poetry and memoir. I am very curious to hear their thoughts on writing and publishing hybrid pieces.

See you there! And if you can't make it, we always post our recordings on our YouTube channel.

Cover Letter & Resume Writing Workshop: Free on Wed., March. 26, 7-8 pm EST

2025-03-12T07:03:00.002-04:00

Are you a federal worker (or adjacent) who has lost your job because of the current cuts and are interested in a free zoom workshop on writing cover letters and resumes?

I'm offering a third cover letter and resume writing workshop over Zoom on Wednesday, March 26, from 7-8 pm EST. We will use this worksheet.

Email me (chloemiller(at)gmail(dot)com) to register for the workshop and receive the Zoom link. You can also email me to be added to a mailing list about future workshops. When you register, include the name you will use on screen (you're welcome to keep your camera off/use a fake name, if you like. Please choose something cheerful like, "Kermit the Frog" rather than a code name that's hard to scan/call on.)

I used to work in career counseling as a grad student at Sarah Lawrence College and I currently teach cover letter/resume writing in some of my college composition writing classes for adult students.

Feel free to share this post and the worksheet with anyone who might be interested.

The workshop is free. If you have funds to pay for such a workshop, please donate to the ACLU, NPR, PBS or another group doing the hard work and/or sharing the necessary facts that we need and will continue to need.

image: View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow

Thomas Cole American; 1836

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/10497

Poetry Writing for Prose Writers - 3 Seats Left

2025-03-11T10:08:00.001-04:00

Poetry month is a great time to (re)discover poetry writing, even for writers who don't call themselves poets.

Poetry is, most sincerely, for everyone. In my classes, we always start with joy - what do you like about the poem? - and then move towards learning how those moments were created through the word choice, word order and placement on the page, not to mention the spaces (line breaks, margins, etc.)

My next online writing class for Brown Bag Lit is Poetry Writing for Prose Writers. We'll read, write and talk about poems in this (fun! welcoming!) two part class.

I know that many folks have (dull? traumatizing?) memories of analyzing poetry in grade school. This class will break that mold and welcome you in through a variety of published voices and generative prompts. This is your life, right? You don't have to write poems and suffer. But you can choose to write poems and enjoy the process.

Would you like to join me? Register today to claim one of the three remaining seats (Lunch Break Writers receive a discount.) I'd love to see you.

Brown Bag Lit's Third Annual Fake AWP Series

2025-02-27T12:36:00.000-05:00

Shasta Grant and I are very excited to announce Brown Bag Lit's Third Annual Fake AWP Series! We appreciate each author and editor who is sharing their knowledge and time with us. Do join us to hear their thoughts (3/19 - 3/21). We look forward to seeing you!

Brown Bag Lit's 2025 Fake AWP Schedule

We encourage you to purchase the authors' books from our Bookshop store or another independent bookstore.

Poetry of Resilience with Sara R. Burnett

Wednesday, March 19

7 - 8 PM EST

How to Write and Publish Your Memoir (without going to AWP) with Dine Watson and Megan Doney

Thursday, March 20

12:00 - 1:00 PM EST

How to Submit (Your Work) with Jennifer Martelli, Esteban Rodríguez and Laura Van Prooyen

Thursday, March 20

7:00 - 8:00 PM EST

Ask a Bookseller! (Readers, Publishers, the Marketplace, and You) with Mo Daviau and Katherine D. Morgan

Friday, March 21

12:00 - 1:00 PM EST

T-shirt Fundraiser

2025-02-18T10:57:00.002-05:00

"They" (you know who I mean) don't want us to tell our stories. "They" want to censor our language. Words matter. Don't let "them" win. Write your stories. Tell your truth.

I want to read your story.

I designed this shirt and am selling it through Zazzle as a fundraiser for the ACLU. You can change the shirt style and color, too, if you prefer.

All proceeds will go to the ACLU. You can also donate directly to the ACLU anytime!