Miller Cane – A True and Exact History
Samuel Ligon’s most recent novel—Miller Cane: A True & Exact History—was serialized for a year in Spokane’s weekly newspaper, The Inlander, as well as on Spokane Public Radio, before being published in revised and expanded form by Slant Books in 2026. Ligon is the author of four previous books of fiction, including two novels—Among the Dead and Dreaming and Safe in Heaven Dead—and two collections of stories, Wonderland, illustrated by Stephen Knezovich, and Drift and Swerve. With Kate Lebo, he co-edited Pie & Whiskey: Writers Under the Influence of Butter & Booze. His stories and essays have appeared in The Georgia Review, New England Review, Gettysburg Review, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. Ligon teaches at Eastern Washington University in Spokane and has served as EWU’s Faculty Legislative Liaison in Olympia and as Artistic Director of the Port Townsend Writers Conference.
“Sam Ligon’s prose is an elemental force — fierce and funny, profane and sacred — and his vision of the country’s past and present is as engrossing as it is unsparing.”
-Shawn Vestal
“Ligon is firmly in control, laying out the elements of the story like the pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle.”
-The New York Times
Samuel Ligon is currently writing and publishing a serial novel—Miller Cane: A True & Exact History—which will appear in fifty installments in Spokane’s weekly newspaper, The Inlander, as well as online, on Spokane Public Radio, and as a podcast. Ligon is the author of four previous books of fiction, including two novels—Among the Dead and Dreaming and Safe in Heaven Dead—and two collections of stories, Wonderland, illustrated by Stephen Knezovich, and Drift and Swerve. Ligon is co-editor, with Kate Lebo, of Pie & Whiskey: Writers Under the Influence of Butter and Booze. His stories have appeared in Georgia Review, Prairie Schooner, New England Review, and elsewhere. His essays appear in the Inlander. He teaches at Eastern Washington University in Spokane, and is Artistic Director of the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference.