Biography

Derek B. Miller, Ph.D, is an American novelist who worked in international affairs before turning to writing full-time. He is the author of six novels, all highly acclaimed: Norwegian by Night, The Girl in Green, American by Day, Radio Life, Quiet Time (an Audible Original novel), and How to Find Your Way in the Dark. His seventh novel, The Curse of Pietro Houdini, will be released in the U.S. and UK in 2023. 

His work has been shortlisted for many awards — including the Barry Award, the Strand Magazine Critic's Award, and the Macavity Award — with Norwegian by Night winning the CWA John Creasey Dagger award for best first crime novel, an eDunnit Award and the Goldsboro Last Laugh Award (which means he has an award-winning sense of humor, and yes that will be on the test). How to Find Your Way in the Dark was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in two categories and a New York Times Best Mystery of 2021. It was the winner of the Jewish Fiction Award from the AJL. 

He counts among his fans such wonderful authors as Richard Russo, Karl Marlantes, Christopher Brookmyre, Val McDermid, Rachel Kaddish, and Shalom Auslander. 

His editors are Lauren Wein at Avid Reader Press (Simon & Schuster. U.S.) and Bill Scott-Kerr at Transworld (Penguin Random House UK).

Miller is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College (BA), Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service (MA in national security studies) and he earned his Ph.D. summa cum laude in international relations from The Graduate Institute in Geneva. 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) and Linacre College also at Oxford on full scholarship from the Europeaum Consortium where he studied under Rom Harré and was the first to use new work in positioning theory to build a theory of media pressure on decision making in international relations. Which is cooler than it sounds.

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 (later run by Jim Ludes for over a decade) 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. Much of his work on the Middle East, evidence-based policy design, positioning theory, international relations, and applied cultural research can be found at https://thepolicylab.academia.edu/DerekBMiller

He currently holds the following positions:

• Design Fellow, SPA Policy Lab at the Somali Public Agenda, Mogadishu. (2021 - present)
• Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy at Salve Regina University (2016 - present)
• Research Associate at the Centre for Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding, The Graduate Institute, Geneva, Switzerland (2016 - present)
• Director of The Policy Lab® (January 2011- )

Miller is from Boston, Massachusetts. He is married to  Camilla Waszink from Norway, and they have two children, Julian and  Clara who are dual Norwegian/U.S. nationals. 

He has lived abroad for over twenty five years in Israel, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Switzerland, Norway and Spain. 

His motorcycle is a Ducati GT 1000 which he loves, and his guitar is a worthless Yamaha FG-331 that has seen more milage than him and the bike combined. His biggest dream is to have a study with all of his books in one place. He knows it will never happen.