Why subscribe?

I’m an author who loves visual culture. My debut novel, Ava Anna Ada (White Rabbit, 2024) was compared to Nabokov’s Ada by Stuart Kelly and called ‘every bit as gripping as it is horrifying’ by Ian Rankin. My debut memoir, The Last Days (Penguin Random House, 2022) was a Guardian Book of the Year. In January 2024 The Scotsman named me an artist to watch.

My first love is textiles. I can pretty much draw a simple, although not straight, line between my MA in Creative Writing and BSc in Textiles. I use Substack to write about encounters with visual art and literature, mostly through life writing.

My writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Stylist and The Sunday Times. I have appeared on Channel 4, BBC World Service, BBC Radio Scotland, ABC Australia and regularly chair book events. I have interviewed some of the world’s leading authors and artists, including Maggie O’Farrell and Jeremy Deller.

I combine all of this in a slightly disparate, possibly haphazard Substack. I am bad at writing along a set theme and find my writing varies in response to my current preoccupations. I think this is ok; I’m bad at being a brand, which likely flies in the face of what I should be doing online. Either which way, 3 am things is a Substack featured publication, it’s great to have you here, thank you for reading.

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Subscribe to Ali Millar's 3am things

'In the same terrain as Wolfe and Krazsnahorkai', a Scotsman artist to watch. Author of Ava Anna Ada, and The Last Days, here are my thoughts on visual culture, literature and writing. I am sorry this is the inside of my head, mostly at 3am.

People

A Scotsman artist to watch 24. AVA ANNA ADA (White Rabbit) - 'as brilliantly queasy as Nabokov's final novel'-Stuart Kelly. THE LAST DAYS (PRH) - a Guardian Book of the Year 'a masterpiece'-Amy Liptrot.