Steve Miller holds a bachelor of arts degree, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He founded the Red Ozier Press in Madison, Wisconsin in 1976 - a fine press devoted to publishing literary first editions in handmade limited editions. In 1979, Miller moved the Press to New York City where he and Ken Botnick refined bookmaking to an art, and achieved national prominence both for the craftsmanship of the books, and for the importance of texts they chose to publish-work by authors like William Faulkner, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Allen Ginsberg, as well as young unpublished writers and artists. The books have been widely exhibited and reviewed, and are in the permanent collections of many libraries and private collections.

In 1988, The New York Public Library purchased the entire archive of the Red Ozier Press for its permanent collection-including all proofs and correspondence from over sixty publications. In October of 1993, the Humanities Gallery at Cooper Union in New York City was the site of a month-long retrospective exhibition of the work of the Red Ozier Press, which coincided with the publication of THE RED OZIER: A LITERARY FINE PRESS, 1976-1987, by Michael Peich, co-published by The New York Public Library and Yellow Barn Press.

Steve Miller began his career at The University of Alabama in 1988 as an associate professor in the School of Library and Information Studies. He teaches letterpress printing and hand papermaking in the graduate-level MFA in the Book Arts Program, one of only three such programs in the United States. The Book Arts program consistently receives national as well as regional attention for its commitment to excellence. Recently, Miller and the Book Arts students produced AN ALABAMA KOZO PRIMER, by Professor Glenn House, with an Introduction by Timothy Barrett and drawings by Richard Flavin, under the program's Parallel Editions imprint. In September of 1997 Miller published, with the University of Mississippi Special Collections, the first (and very) limited edition of William Faulkner's poem NEW ORLEANS, for the benefit of both the Book Arts Program and Ole Miss Special Collections. John Scott, a New Orleans artist contributed a magnificent drawing to the project, which was introduced by writer Guy Davenport.

The most recent limited edition project is entitled CHALKVILLE, poems by youthful female offenders in a facility near Birmingham. This project was published in the spring of 2001, as a collaboration between students in the program and the young poets.

Steve Miller is the proprietor of Red Hydra Press and collaborates on various limited edition publishing projects with nationally-acclaimed authors and artists. Currently in press is the authorized biography of American papermaker, paper historian, and book artist Dard Hunter, BY HIS OWN LABOR: THE BIOGRAPHY OF DARD HUNTER, written by Cathleen A. Baker.

Steve Miller is a Co-director of Paper and Book Intensive, a nationally-recognized annual series of summer workshops in the book arts. He is on the Advisory Board of the American Museum of Papermaking in Atlanta, Georgia, and is past president of the Friends of Dard Hunter, Inc., the largest group of artists, craftspersons, conservators and scientists in the United States devoted to the art and craft of hand papermaking and related book arts.

Professor Miller has spoken widely around the state of Alabama, regionally and nationally about the book arts to many different kinds of groups, from school children to educators and practitioners. He is a recipient of a number of grants from the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Steve Miller, steve@redhydra.com

Back to Red Hydra Press
The Book Arts homepage