The 5th Inning (Busboys and Poets)

This is a second memoir following Coming after Fathering Words: The Making of an African American Writer. In this story, Miller is 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; one man's examination of personal 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, and a combination of baseball and the blues.

E. Ethelbert Miller is editor of Poet Lore magazine. The author of several collections of poems, his last book How We Sleep On The Nights We Don't Make Love was an Independent Publisher Award Finalist. In 2004 Miller was awarded a Fulbright to visit Israel. Poets & Writers presented him with the 2007 Barnes & Noble/Writers for Writers Award. He lives in Washington, DC.