The 5th inning

Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2009. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Dan Moldea (photograph source of front cover image. Format is approximately 4.75 inches by 7.75 inches. 167, [9] pages. Inscribed by the author on the title page. Inscription reads To Liyana [unclear] to walk in light. One Love. Ethelbert 12/09. Stamp of Busboys and Poets on the title page. Eugene Ethelbert Miller, best known as E. Ethelbert Miller (born November 20, 1950), is an African-American poet, teacher and literary activist, based in Washington, DC. He is the author of several collections of poetry and two memoirs, the editor of Poet Lore magazine, and the host of the weekly WPFW morning radio show On the Margin. Miller was the founder and director of the Ascension Poetry Reading Series, one of the oldest literary series in the Washington area. He was director of Howard University's African-American Resource Center from 1974 for more than 40 years. Miller has taught at various schools, including American University, Emory & Henry College, George Mason University, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He was also a core faculty member of the writing seminars at Bennington College. He served as board chairperson of the Institute for Policy Studies. He is also on the boards of Split This Rock and the Writer's Center, and since 2002 has been co-editor of Poet Lore magazine, the oldest poetry journal in the US. He is former chair of the Humanities Council of Washington, D.C., and has served on the boards of the AWP, the Edmund Burke School, PEN American Center, PEN/Faulkner Foundation, and the Washington Area Lawyer for the Arts (WALA). The 5th Inning is poet and literary activist E. Ethelbert Miller's second memoir. This book finds Miller returning to baseball, the game of his youth, in order to find the metaphor that will provide the measurement of his life. Almost 60, he ponders whether his life can now be entered into the official record books as a success or failure. The 5th Inning is one man's examination of person relationships, depression, love and loss. This is a story of the individual alone on the pitching mound or in the batters box. It's a box score filled with remembrance. It's a combination of baseball and the blues. Excerpt from a review found on-line by Vincent F. A. Golphin: Miller uses the book to assess the energy of relationships he holds, then concludes he is more Kenneth Fredrick Keltner than Joe DiMaggio. Keltner, the Cleveland Indians third baseman who halted DiMaggio's 1941, 56-game hitting streak, never made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but forced lovers of the game to rethink their standards for greatness. That is why poet Liam Rector proclaims Miller "a Gandhi" in U.S. literature. The 5th Inning is honest, resolute, and upbeat—"I'm finally learning how to pitch and not simply throw" —and avoids many of the pitfalls of memoir writing. Most readers will see their questions about life, love, and the last lap among Miller's. The Poet Lore magazine editor drafts a spare reflection on age: When a person becomes 50 or approaches the years that follow, his story is almost over. He can turn around and see the narrative he created. It might be about children, wealth or personal achievements. The narrative is the story you find yourself in, but can't determine if you're the author. Memoirs are as hard to assess, or neatly present, as kittens in a basket. That said, as readers draw to the end of The 5th Inning, even non-sports enthusiasts, they are likely to be as thrilled and impressed as fans at a hometown victory.