Biography, Bibliography, Filmography

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Jump down for a no-frills bibliography, filmography and c.v.

Watch an interview of me in my study conducted by my son, G. Calvin Miller, on Feb. 3, 2008, camera by director David Bettencourt:

Watch me at work at The Providence Journal on July 18, 2008, video by G. Calvin:

Or, you can read what I put together:

Born on June 12, 1954, the youngest of three children of a stern Irish-Catholic mother and a more gentle airplane mechanic who converted to Catholicism from the Methodist religion of his upbringing, I grew up in Wakefield, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. I spent eight years at St. Joseph parochial school, then went to St. John's Prep in Danvers, Mass., a wonderful, intellectually challenging school run by the Xaverian Brothers order that in many ways opened my eyes to the world. I loved it there. Hockey was an important part of my life, but I also had a strong interest in biology and medicine, and I simultaneously got ever-more deeply into writing, which had interested me since about third grade. I was co-editor of the St. John's Prep student paper and it was during that period that I developed a serious interest in short stories and allegedly humorous essays. I use the word "allegedly" quite deliberately. I also was responsible for some of the worst poems ever written in the English language, although they seemed profound at the time. Hey, I was 16.

After graduating cum laude from Harvard College in 1976 and doing the obligatory living-abroad find-yourself thing for several months, I worked as a baggage-smasher for Delta Airlines (the value of a Harvard degree!) while freelancing, including a cover piece for The Boston Globe magazine about the possibility of someone making an atomic bomb (and this was decades before 9/11). I then landed a job as a reporter at the North Adams Transcript, a small daily newspaper in North Adams, Mass. God knows why I was hired, for I had virtually zero experience and hadn't so much as stuck my nose inside a journalism classroom. Whipped into shape by a great editor, the legendary Rod Doherty, executive editor of the Dover, New Hampshire paper Foster's Daily Democrat, I learned the journalistic ropes and, in less than a year, took a staff writer position at the larger Cape Cod Times in Hyannis.

Two and a half years later, I went to The Providence Journal, which had won several Pulitzer Prizes and had a reputation as a "writer's paper." A reputation well-deserved, I discovered first-hand, especially under the guidance of my new mentor, Joel Rawson, who was metro managing editor when I arrived and was until his recent retirement executive editor. I have been chairman of the paper's writing committee, have won a bunch of awards (including an American Society of Newspaper Editors prize for feature writing), and for many years have specialized in long-term projects and series, several of which have been the basis for books. I like to think my forte is story-telling, tales in which interesting things happen to interesting people. I am also a regular book reviewer for our Sunday Books section (my tastes, as with my own work, are eclectic).

At one point, I became intrigued with online serial fiction, and wrote the first chapters of three short stories -- for Halloween and Christmas, 1999, and the summer of 2000 -- that Journal and projo.com readers have finished in writing contests.

My love of early Stephen King, of all people, inspired me to begin seriously writing fiction. I succeeded in having several horror/mystery stories published in magazines and hardcover and paperback collections, and, in 1988, sold my first book, a novel, THUNDER RISE (hardcover, 1989; paperback, 1992), to William Morrow. It got some good reviews and some bad; it's an entertaining book with several of my favorite fictional characters, and my daughters think it's cool, which is good enough for me. Meanwhile, through one of those weird twists of fate that keep life interesting, a young new editor at Random House out of the blue wrote me a letter asking if I had any non-fiction book ideas. This editor, Jon Karp, now publisher and editor-in-chief of Twelve, had worked briefly as a Journal reporter, but we were hardly friends; my only real contact with him was one day when he was a contributing reporter for a Page One story I wrote on deadline about a gruesome triple-murder/homicide involving a mother and her kids. Jon did a swell job watching the meat wagon remove dead Mom from her $20-a-night motel room. Anyway, I did have an idea: Hardy Hendren, chief of surgery at Boston's Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School professor, and protagonist of THE WORK OF HUMAN HANDS (hardcover, 1993; paperback, 1999), which received excellent reviews and pleased Jon enough that Random House bought two more titles. COMING OF AGE (1995) is my sentimental favorite, a fast-moving tale featuring Dave Bettencourt, one of the funniest and most unpredictable people I've ever met -- and now, in 2007, an accomplished documentary filmmaker whose first feature-length work, YOU MUST BE THIS TALL: The Story of Rocky Point Park, premiered on Sept. 7, 2007, to a sold-out house and a five-star review. COMING OF AGE is set inside an ordinary American public high school... ordinary, that is, until the craziness starts.

TOY WARS brought me to yet another place normally closed to journalists, never mind the public at large: deep inside a Fortune 500 company, Hasbro Inc., manufacturer of G.I. Joe, Mr. Potato Head, Batman, Star Wars and many other toys. I have never spent so much time on a project -- almost five years, when all was said and done. That's because what I envisioned as a fairly straightforward story about the creation of a toy became, once I'd found my bearings, a saga in which jobs, reputations and billions and billions of dollars were at stake. Of all my books, Toy Wars has the strongest narrative and many of my most compelling characters, starting with CEO Alan Hassenfeld, a complicated and unconventional but admirable man who is unlike anyone I know. I wrote Toy Wars as I would a novel, with the hope that readers would get drawn in deeply at the opening scene and not let go until the very last word. You, of course, will be the judge of whether I succeeded.

My fifth book was KING OF HEARTS: The True Story of the Maverick Who Pioneered Open Heart Surgery, an account of the astonishingly unconventional guys who created open-heart surgery, notably the colorfully eccentric Dr. C. Walton Lillehei. Random House published it in February, 2000.

I followed King of Hearts with a six-part Providence Journal look into a rarely-visited world of old money: namely, the high-society world of Newport, Rhode Island, home of mansions, millionaires, and fascinating people who rarely, if ever, make their way into print. Click here to read A NEARLY PERFECT SUMMER: Travels Through Old-Money Newport.

My sixth book was MEN AND SPEED: A Wild Ride Through NASCAR's Breakout Season, a chronicle of the 2001 Nextel Cup season through the focus of Roush Racing, largest team in motorsports. My new publisher PublicAffairs, brought out the hardcover of MEN AND SPEED in May 2002 (paperback in 2003), after the Journal published an eight-part series. My editor was the esteemed Paul Golob, and my publisher was Peter Osnos -- great guys both, and big supporters of my work. Paul has since left PublicAffairs to edit the Times Books imprint at Henry Holt. Please visit the official MEN AND SPEED book site!

My seventh book, a look at pioneering medicine, THE XENO CHRONICLES, got nice reviews after it was published in June 2005.

My 2006 non-fiction project was ``The Growing Season,'' the story of Frank Beazley, a remarkable man, that ran 12 consecutive days (September 24, 2006, through October 5, 2006) in The Providence Journal. The reader response was overwhelming.

The fall of 2007 brought an unprecedented behind-the-scenes journey through the life and world of a prominent American Catholic bishop, the Most Rev. Thomas J. Tobin. This is a story of a man, born to humble circumstances, who became one of the youngest American bishops ever - and now leads one of the country's major dioceses. AN AMERICAN BISHOP: Inside the World of One Cathedral Square started Sunday, October 21, 2007, and continued the next four Sundays, concluding with an epilogue on Monday, November 19, 2007. Check out the extensive online presentation.

My eighth book, A VERY DIFFERENT SENATOR (working title), is about the late U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell, the Newport, R.I. politician, born into great wealth, whose distinguished 36-year career in Washington included creation of the Pell Grants education-assistance program, establishment of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment of the Humanities.

I am engaged to marry Yolanda T. Gabrielle, an extraordinary woman who keeps a lower public profile than I do, a true love and best friend -- I feel lucky and blessed.

I have three children: the oldest of whom, Rachel Miller Bernier, a registered ER nurse, is a mother of two beautiful daughters, Isabella Katherine Bernier, my first grandchild, and Olivia Grace Bernier, my second; the middle of whom, Katherine Linwood Miller, graduated in June 2009 from Harvard College and is now employed by the Rhode Island Department of Health, and has her own website; and the youngest of whom, Cal, is a sophomore and aspiring filmmaker at Providence's great LaSalle Academy.

My community passion is libraries. From 1997 until June 2009, when I moved to Warwick, R.I., I was the chairman of the board of trustees of Burrillville's principal library, the Jesse Smith Memorial Library. I joined the board as a regular member in 1995. The library we ran all those early years was badly overcrowded, and so after joining the town's new library building committee we began construction in 2006 on a new $9 million library that is a comfortable and exciting place for reading, viewing and performing. The new library opened on March 31, 2008 -- a place where arts, entertainment, and writing is celebrated. It is also the centerpiece of the Stillwater Mills revitalization project, which will transform a blighted area in the heart of Burrillville into a vibrant civic, commercial and residential area. We had our Grand Opening on Sunday, April 27, 2008. The summer of 2008 saw the debut of Riverwalk Times, an annual outdoor theater, music, and arts series that I founded. I am now a trustee emeritus of the Smith Library.

I am producing and writing documentary movies directed by Dave Bettencourt -- yes, the protagonist of COMING OF AGE. Our initial movie, ON THE LAKE: Life and Love in a Distant Place, the first produtcion from Eagle Peak Media, the movie, Internet and books company Dave and I co-founded, tells the story of Frank Beazley's home, Zambarano State Hospital, which began as the Rhode Island State Sanatorium -- and also the larger international story of TB, the number-one killer in the early 1900s and still a global threat today. Please visit the official site to watch the trailer and read the OTL blog. The movie premiered on Feb. 13, 2009, at the beautifully restored Stadium theatre in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. PBS brodcast followed.

Dave and I are so pleased with our creative partnership and our great crew that we founded Eagle Peak Media, specializing in movie-making, Internet content and distribution, and the printed word: mainly books, short stories and essays. Our second documentary, BEHIND THE HEDGEROW, about the exclusive world of old-money Newport, began production in April 2009 and will premiere in the sumemr of 2010.

G. WAYNE MILLER: Bibliography, filmography and c.v.

EAGLE PEAK MEDIA

Co-founder and partner in EPM, a multi-media company specializing in films, Internet content and distribution, and the printed word: mainly books, short stories and essays.

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Judge, American Medical Writers Association writing awards, New England prizes, 1994.

``Immersion Reporting,’’ Writer's Digest magazine, December, 1994.

` `Advice on Lead Writing,’’ passage in guidebook, First National Writers' Conference, Hartford, Conn., 1995.

Chapter in How I Wrote the Story, third edition, 1996.

Writing coach for new writers, Providence Journal, designed and ran program, summer of 1997.

Fellow, New York Times Foundation-sponsored Age Boom Academy, International Center for Longevity, New York, October 2001.

Providence Journal Writing Tips, a forum where our staff explains techniques.

Columbia Journalism Review interview on narrative journalism, Oct. 6, 2006.

AWARDS AND HONORS

United Press International New England Newspaper Advisory Committee, General Editorial Excellence, First Place, Newspapers of 15,000 to 50,000 circulation, 1980.

New England Associated Press News Executives Association, Third Place, science-technology stories, newspapers 30,000 to 60,000 circulation, 1982.

Greater Fall River (Mass.) Association for Retarded Citizens, annual media award, 1985.

National Council of Community Mental Health Centers, New England area service award, 1985.

Coalition of Family Advocates for the Mentally Ill, first annual anti-stigma award, 1985.

Rhode Island Association for Retarded Citizens, media Excellence Award, 1985.

Association for Retarded Citizens of the United States, media Excellence Award, 1985.

Rhode Island Probation & Parole Association, media award, 1985.

American Psychiatric Association, Robert T. Morse Writer's Award, 1986.

National Mental Health Association, Helen Carringer National Mental Health Journalism Award, 1986.

National Mental Health Association, Gold Award, 1986.

Mental Health Association of Rhode Island, media award, 1986.

New England Associated Press News Executives Association, honorable mention, spot news coverage, 1988.

National Mental Health Association, Silver Award, 1988.

Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America, first place, national journalism award, 1990.

Children's Express, first place, national journalism award, 1990.

New England Associated Press News Executives Association, third place, enterprise writing, 1990.

American Association on Mental Retardation, Region 10 Humanitarian Award, 1990.

New England Newspaper Association, Public Occurrence Award, 1991.

American Society of Newspaper Editors, Distinguished Writing Award, non-deadline writing, 1992, for ``Working Wonders.''

American Medical Writers Association, New England Chapter, Will Solimene Award of Excellence Writing Award, 1992.

New England Associated Press News Executives Association, honorable mention, feature writing, 1992.

JCPenney-Missouri Award, first place, series/special section, 1993.

New England Associated Press News Executives Association, part of a team that shared first place for investigative reporting, 1993. (Miller's contribution, writing a reaction story, was ancillary to the main effort.)

Benjamin Fine Awards, National Association of Secondary School Principals, first place, series, for ``Coming of Age,'' 1994.

New England Associated Press News Executives Association, third place, enterprise, for ``Toy Soldiers,’’ 1996.

ARC of Northern Rhode Island, Media of Excellence Award, 1998.

American Cancer Society, Sword of Hope Judges’ Award, 1999.

National Marrow Donor Program, 2000 Excellence in Journalism Award, 2000.

Digital Edge Awards, Newspaper Association of America, 2001, finalist, for the online version of ``A Nearly Perfect Summer.’’

Pulitzer Prize finalist, member of Providence Journal team, Public Service, 2004.

Sevellon Brown award for public service, from the New England Associated Press News Executives Association, member of Providence Journal team, 2004.

NRI Community Services Inc., Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Champions honoree for outstanding community service, April 27, 2006.

Harvard University's Nieman Foundation for Journalism's Narrative Digest, ``Notable Narrative,'' Oct. 13, 2006.

Society of Professional Journalists, Jon Marshall's News Gems, Highlighting the Best of American Journalism, Oct. 19, 2006, for The Growing Season, which Marshall described as ``a stunning profile that reads like a novella.''

Essay on my lifelong love for story for Rhode Island NPR affiliate WRNI's This I Believe weekly series, broadcast May 30, 2007.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

Harvard-Radcliffe Club of Rhode Island, Schools Committee, 1992-2003; returned to committee, 2007-

Board of Trustees, Jesse Smith Memorial Library, Burrillville, R.I., member since 1995. Chairman of the Board, 1997-2009. Trustee Emeritus, 2009-

Burrillville-Glocester Youth Soccer, coach, 1996 and 1997.

Rhode Island Coalition of Library Advocates, 1996-

Burrillville Townwide Library Needs Committee, 1997 to 1998, when committee fulfilled its mandate.

Registered as prosepctive donor, National Bone Marrow Donor Registry, 2000-

Burrillville Library Facilities Committee, secretary, 2000 to 2003, when committee's mandate was fulfilled.

Burrillville Junior Hockey League, assistant coach, 2000-2003

Burrillville Junior Hockey League, secretary of the board, 2002-2003

Burrillville Library Building Committee, 2005-2008

Member of Advisory Board, The Lawrence Transplant Foundation, Washington D.C., 2006-

Rhode Island Blood Center, donor, five-gallon club, Sept. 4, 2009.

Benefactor, Make-A-Wish Foundation and The Tomorrow Fund, 2006

Chairman, Riverwalk Times summer outdoor entertainment series, 2007-

Literary representation by:

Kay McCauley

The Pimlico Agency

Box 20447, Cherokee Station

New York, NY, 10021

Screen representation by:

Michael Prevett

The Gotham Group

9255 Sunset Blvd.

Suitte 515, Los Angeles, CA 90069

Web site by Timothy C. Barmann | Contents Copyright © 1997-2008 G. Wayne Miller