If you don’t know E. (Eugene) Ethelbert Miller, it’s likely you’ve been living deep in the Amazon rainforest. Though slim and soft-spoken, Miller is a giant across the DC region and throughout the literary community. A much-celebrated poet, he is also known for his advocacy, his sharp wit, and his passion for using language to bridge divides between cultures. He is always ready with an encouraging word and an eagerness to uplift fellow writers. For these reasons, we’re proud to announce that he’ll receive the Independent’s Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Washington Writers Conference.

Though born in the Bronx, Miller quickly became a fixture in Washington, DC, after graduating from Howard University in 1972 and serving as director of its African American Studies Resource Center from 1974 to 2015. He has authored two memoirs and several poetry collections, including, most recently, the little book of e, a collaboration with translator Rafi Ellenson that presents Haiku in English and Hebrew as a symbol of how language can bring people together. His poetry has been translated into nearly a dozen languages.

Miller is a two-time Fulbright Senior Specialist Program Fellow to Israel and holds an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from Emory & Henry University. He was inducted into the 2015 Washington, DC, Hall of Fame and was given the 2016 AWP George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature and the 2016 DC Mayor’s Arts Award for Distinguished Honor.

In 2018, he was inducted into the Gamma Xi Phi arts fraternity and appointed an Authors Guild ambassador. His collection If God Invented Baseball won the 2019 Literary Award for poetry by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, and he received a 2020 grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. He was nominated for a Grammy in 2022 for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album, “Black Men Are Precious.”

He hosts the weekly WPFW morning radio show “On the Margin with E. Ethelbert Miller” and hosts and produces “The Scholars” on UDC-TV. For 17 years, Miller served as editor of Poet Lore, the oldest poetry magazine in the U.S. He has been married to Denise King-Miller for 42 years and has two children, Jasmine Simone and Nyere Gibran.

The purpose of the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented annually by the Independent’s board of directors, is to recognize “a DC-based or -focused person who has made a long-term, significant contribution to the readers and writers of the Washington, DC, area and beyond, especially in ways that encourage others to contribute to and grow a literary community rich in independent thought and boundless curiosity.” Clearly, E. Ethelbert Miller fits this description.

Past recipients include former Maryland poet laureate and co-founder of the Washington Writers’ Publishing House Grace Cavalieri; bestselling biographer Kitty Kelley; longtime Washington Post reporter and editor Eugene L. Meyer; author, teacher, and co-founder of the Hurston/Wright Foundation Marita Golden; and award-winning author and co-founder/first president of the Independent David O. Stewart.

The award will be given during the 2025 Washington Writers Conference on Saturday, May 3rd, in Rockville, MD. While Miller is unable to attend due to a prior commitment, his daughter will be present to accept the award on his behalf. Learn more here.