Derek B. Miller

Wellesley High School Author: Derek B. Miller (1988)

            Derek B. Miller could be a character in one of his internationally bestselling crime and foreign affairs novels.

            Derek lives two lives:  as a highly respected Ph.D. specialist in international affairs, working for the U.S. government, European think tanks, and United Nations organizations; and as a writer of five novels which have won prestigious awards in a number of countries (including the Crime Writers Association’s John Creasey Dagger award for best first crime novel, for Norwegian by Night).  His most recent book, How to Find Your Way in the Dark was a Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award and was named The New York Times Best Mystery of 2021. 

            After WHS, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence (B.A.), Georgetown (M.A. in national security studies), The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva Switzerland (Ph.D.), and the University of Oxford.

            After working for organizations such as the U.N. Development Programme, the U.N. Institute for Disarmament Research, and International Alert, Derek founded and is Director of The Policy Lab at Brown University.  He is also Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy, and Research Associate at the Centre on Conflict, Development, and Peacebulding at the Graduate Institute Geneva.  He founded Voices Between: Stories Against Extremism, which he describes as “an initiative by storytellers to innovate learning about war and peace.”

            His first novel, Norwegian by Night, was first published in Norway, where he lives; then in the U.S. and eventually in dozens of countries around the world.  It was a finalist for many awards, hailed by The Economist, and by Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo who said it was “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.”

            It was followed by The Girl in Green (“a blistering and powerful successor, set against the backdrop of war-torn Iraq … a thought-provoking tour de force … not to be missed”), American by Day, Radio Life, Quiet Time, and How to Find Your Way in the Dark (about which The New York Times wrote:  “His character portraits are indelible, often heartbreaking. At times this novel moved me to tears, the highest possible compliment.”).