UNE faculty member's ‘orphaned’ novel gets new chapter on storied literary holiday

A UNE faculty member’s “orphaned” debut novel has found new life through both a new publisher and a symbolic home within literary circles around the world over. 

“Unwrap Your Candy,” by Jesse Miller, M.F.A., associate teaching professor in the University of New England School of Arts and Humanities, was republished June 16 by LJMcD Communications, coinciding with Bloomsday, the annual international celebration of Irish author James Joyce and his landmark novel, “Ulysses.”

The date carried special significance for Miller, who describes Joyce as his “most cherished and revered literary hero.”

First published in 2017, “Unwrap Your Candy” was shelved just three years later when its original publisher shifted focus away from literary fiction. The novel remained out of print until its recent acquisition and re-release by LJMcD.

“I’m absolutely ebullient to have found a new home for my debut novel,” Miller said. “Orphaned books can be soul-crushing for writers, and rehoming this book has been a great catharsis for me, as well as deeply restorative in many ways. Revisiting where I’ve been as a writer has shown me a glimpse of where I’d like to go next.”

A darkly comic literary novel, “Unwrap Your Candy” follows Thom, a young pencil-pusher tormented by his past. Set against the monotony of a condom factory, Thom is finally pushed over the edge during an intoxicating Halloween night and must come to terms with the aftermath the following day. Daniel Davis Wood, author of “At the Edge of the Solid World,” described the book as “an energetic but also tragicomic depiction of industrial-corporate life in ways that alternate between the mundane and grotesque.” 

Bloomsday is observed each year on June 16 by readers, scholars, and literary enthusiasts around the world in honor of Joyce's “Ulysses,” whose events take place over the course of a single day in Dublin. For Miller, aligning the novel's re-release with the literary holiday offered a meaningful milestone for a work he once feared might remain out of circulation.

“Rehoming this once out-of-print valentine to James Joyce and having it published on Bloomsday has thrilled me to no end,” Miller reflected.

At UNE, Miller teaches writing in multiple genres, including fiction, poetry, journalism, and composition, as well as communication courses. He also serves as Writing Fellows coordinator and advisor to the University's Creative Writing Club.

In addition to “Unwrap Your Candy,” Miller is the author of the novel “ARK.” His forthcoming novel, “The Palmist,” is scheduled for publication later this year.