Derek B Miller

Background

In January 2013 The Times newspaper featured his debut novel Norwegian by Night as the novel to look out for in the forthcoming year and by year's end The Economist listed Norwegian by Night as one of the best six novels in the world, alongside the Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, winner of the Man Booker Prize and The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Miller was born in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up in Wellesley. Miller is Jewish, and his family emigrated from Eastern Europe to Massachusetts in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He is married to Camilla Waszink from Norway, and they have two children, Julian and Clara. Miller and his family live in Oslo, Norway while keeping strong connections to New England.

Education and career

Miller is a graduate of Wellesley High School (1988), Sarah Lawrence College (B.A. in Liberal Arts, 1992), Georgetown University (M.A. in national security studies from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, 1996), the formerly named Institut universitaire de hautes études internationales (D.E.S in international relations, 1998), and a Ph.D. with distinction from the University of Geneva in international relations (2004). Miller also studied at the Hebrew University (Israel, 1990–91), where he remained for the duration of the Gulf War, Hunter College (1993), St. Catherine's College at the University of Oxford (1995-1996 in connection with his studies at Georgetown) and finally Linacre College at the University of Oxford on full scholarship from the Europeaum Consortium in connection with his Ph.D. in Geneva. While there he worked with Professor Rom Harré to apply Harré's work on Positioning Theory to the study of international affairs. His dissertation was later published by Palgrave Macmillan as "Media Pressure on Foreign Policy: The Evolving Theoretical Framework."

Miller has worked in international affairs since 1994, starting his career as an intern on Capitol Hill for then-Senator William S. Cohen (R - Maine). He was the founding editor of Georgetown's National Security Studies Quarterly and has held positions with, or consulted for, many think tanks and organizations including The Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations at Geneva; The Small Arms Survey; International Alert; the United Nations Development Programme; and The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research among others. Miller founded The Policy Lab® in 2011 where he is Director. Additionally, he is (since 2015) Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy, Salve Regina University, and Research Associate at the Centre on Conflict, Development, and Peacebuilding at the Graduate Institute Geneva.

Fiction Writing

Miller's first novel, Norwegian by Night — written in English — was first published in Norway in translation by Cappelen Damm (2010) as Et merkelig sted å dø. The novel's first English-language publisher was Scribe in Australia (2013), followed by Faber and Faber in the UK, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the U.S. It was later published in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, Israel, Poland, the Czech Republic, South Korea, and Japan. Norwegian by Night received outstanding reviews globally including in the Guardian, Times, Sunday Times,Times Literary Supplement, New York Times, Der Spiegel and many other publications. It was shortlisted for seven literary awards. In October 2013, the novel was awarded with the Crime Writer's Association John Creasy Dagger Award for a debut crime novel, and in 2014 at Crimefest it was awarded the eDunnit Award and the Goldsboro Last Laugh Award. Norwegian by Night was further nominated for the Strand Magazine Critic's Award for Best First Novel, the American Bookseller's Association's 2014 Indie Choice Award, Book of the Year for Adult Debuts, Barry Award for Best First Novel and the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery. Pulitzer Prize winner, Richard Russo, wrote of Norwegian by Night (in 2016) that it is "one of those books that completely transcends its genre and offers us one of the most memorable characters — Sheldon Horowitz — that I’ve encountered in years." After Russo's review the book shot to #1 on The Million's Top Ten list and remained there for six straight months before entering its prestigious Hall of Fame in July 2017.

Miller's second novel, The Girl in Green (2016), was published by (again) Faber and Faber (UK); and Scribe (Australia and New Zealand). It was published in 2017 by (again) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (U.S.); and Neri Pozza (Italy). Cappelen Damm published the book in 2018 (Norway). In the United States The Girl in Green received pre-publication starred reviews from all four major trade publications (Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist). In the UK it was short-listed for the 2017 Crime Writers Association's Gold Dagger Award for the "best crime novel of the year" with the judges writing that, "After his award-winning debut, Norwegian by Night, Derek B Miller has delivered a blistering and powerful successor in The Girl in Green, set against the backdrop of war-torn Iraq. This is a thought-provoking tour de force with unforgettable characters – one not to be missed."

For Miller's third novel, American by Day (2018), Miller remained with HMH in the U.S. but moved from Faber and Faber (UK) to Transworld at Penguin Random House. Bill Scott-Kerr, editor, announced the move saying, "Ever since I read and was captivated by Norwegian by Night, I’ve been a fan of Derek B Miller’s writing," he continued. "There are few writers who can get both humour and pathos on the page with his apparently effortless skill, so I am utterly thrilled now to be publishing his new novel, American by Day, which emphatically demonstrates these qualities all over again."