From the organizers: The Book Catapult is proud to welcome back local author Jim Miller for his latest collection of poetry, "Paradise and Other Lost Places" on Thursday, November 21 at 7 p.m. In this collection of poems, Jim Miller asks: “How much pain and sweetness can fit into one man’s life?” Miller’s Paradise and Other Lost Places looks at subjects as diverse as colonialism, war, nature, labor, love, and loss—giving us moments of stunning realization and personal truth: “There is no describing the vast love that wells up in you when you find yourself in rapture with the stunning, naked radiance of the world.” Jim Miller is the author of the novels Flash (AK Press, 2010) and Drift (University of Oklahoma Press, 2007). He is also co-author of a history of San Diego, Under the Perfect Sun: The San Diego Tourists Never See (with Mike Davis and Kelly Mayhew on The New Press, 2003) and a cultural studies book on working class sports fandom, Better to Reign in Hell: Inside the Raiders Fan Empire (with Kelly Mayhew on The New Press, 2005). Miller is also the editor of Sunshine/Noir: Writing from San Diego and Tijuana (City Works Press, 2005), Sunshine/Noir II: Writing from San Diego and Tijuana (with Kelly Mayhew on City Works Press, 2015), and Democracy in Education; Education for Democracy: An Oral History of the American Federation of Teachers, Local 1931 (AFT 1931, 2007). He has published poetry, fiction, and non-fiction in a wide range of journals and other publications, and has a weekly column in the San Diego Free Press and the OB Rag. Miller is a native San Diegan and a graduate of the MFA program at San Diego State University. In addition to his MFA in Fiction, Miller has a Ph.D. in American Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University. Miller teaches English, Humanities and Labor Studies at San Diego City College. He lives in San Diego with his wife, Kelly Mayhew, and their son, Walter.
