Kenneth Miller

Los Angeles, CA USA
Website: http://www.kennethmiller.net
Contact

Professional Experience

A versatile, artful and award-winning journalist, I've reported from four continents for national magazines. Specialties include human interest, science, the environment, entertainment, religion and crime. I'm also a veteran editor, known for transforming muddled manuscripts into models of vivid and well-structured prose.

Expertise

Editor
10 Years
Reporter
28 Years
Writer
28 Years

Specialty

Environment & Nature
14 Years
Arts & Humanities
28 Years
Science
18 Years

Industries


Magazine - Large Consumer/National magazines
28 Years
Book Publishing Consumer
3 Years

Total Media Industry Experience

26 Years

Media Client List (# assignments last 2 yrs)

Parade (1-2), Reader's Digest (10+), Ladies' Home Journal (10+), Discover (6-10), USA Weekend (3-5), Prevention (3-5), LA Weekly (1-2), More (1-2), Mother Jones (1-2)

Corporate Client List (# assignments last 2 yrs)

Aptel Research (3-5)

Other Work History

FREELANCE WRITER 1984-present Have written for Discover, Elle, Esquire, Life, More, Mother Jones, Parents, Reader's Digest, Rolling Stone, Salon, Time, and other major publications. * Reported from Tanzania, Russia, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Iceland, and elsewhere. FREELANCE EDITOR 2012 Developmental editor on The Year of Learning Dangerously: Adventures in Homeschooling, by Quinn Cummings (Perigee, 2012). READER'S DIGEST West Coast Editor, Jan. 2008- June 2010 Senior Writer, 2007-2008 Wrote, assigned and edited stories. Beats: Human interest, science, crime, film, essays, Q&As. PEOPLE Senior Editor, 2000-2003 Oversaw sections covering human interest, politics, education, medicine, literature, visual arts, environment, and family issues, as well as celebrity as-told-to features. LIFE Senior Writer, 1995-1999 * Nominated for National Magazine Award for feature on Gulf War syndrome. * Wrote internationally recognized cover story on conjoined Hensel twins.

Foreign Language Skills

Conversational Spanish and French

Computer Skills

Word, Excel, Quark, InCopy, Lotus Notes

References

Available on request

Awards

Folio Eddie Award ASJA Award E.T. Meredith Award for Creative Excellence Wilbur Award for Religious Reporting National Magazine Award Finalist John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism EDI Award, National Easter Seal Society Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship

Associations

ASJA

Showcase

Entertainment

The Phantom of the Multiplex
(Reader's Digest 1/1/2005)
Behind the scenes with director Joel Schumacher and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber during the making of "The Phantom of the Opera."
The Truth Behind "War of the Worlds"
(Reader's Digest 6/1/2005)
As Steven Spielberg's Martian invasion film makes clear, our monsters tell us a lot about ourselves.
Where He Came From
(Reader's Digest 6/1/2005)
Newscaster Brian Williams talks about the person who influenced him most -- Tom Brokaw. I wrote the story in Williams's "voice," based on a one-hour phone interview.
Best Man of Action: Clint Eastwood
(Reader's Digest 5/1/2007)
An appreciation of Eastwood, tracing his evolution from TV cowboy to serious director -- with comments from Gene Hackman, Ryan Phillippe, Emmy Rossum and others.

Profiles

Mushroom Manifesto
(Discover 8/1/2013)
Crusading mycologist Paul Stamets says mushrooms are key to human and environmental health -- and can clean up everything from oil spills to nuclear meltdowns.
Journey to Justice
(More 5/1/2007)
Portrait of Barbara Mulvaney, an American lawyer who bounced back from a devastating midlife crisis to become a prosecutor for the Rwanda war crimes tribunal. Reported from Africa.
Plane Crazy
(Reader's Digest 3/1/2008)
Profile of Sean D. Tucker, the Michael Jordan of aerobatics.

Science/Technology

Brain Benders
(Discover 10/1/2013)
Neurobiologist Carla Shatz discovered that immune molecules help shape the wiring of the brain. Could they also be key to treating autism, schizophrenia and stroke?
Showdown at the O.K. Caral
(Discover 9/1/2005)
Archaeologists feud bitterly over how civilization in the Americas got its start 5,000 years ago. Reported from Peru.

Drama/Adventure

Emergency Landing
(Reader's Digest 10/1/2009)
When a pilot dies at the controls of a private plane, a passenger takes over.
Into the Wild
(Reader's Digest 6/1/2008)
Trapped in their pickup truck by a blizzard, a married couple survive for 12 days in Utah's remote wilderness.

Environment

The Midas Touch
(Mother Jones 5/1/2006)
In Alaska's Bristol Bay region, the continent's biggest gold mine could put the world's largest salmon fishery out of business. An investigation.
An Idyll Interrupted
(Los Angeles Times Magazine 8/1/2004)
In a peaceful California mountain town, a battle over bottling spring water grows violent. Cover story.

Crime

Two Million Reasons for Murder
(Reader's Digest 2/1/2007)
A young woman is killed on a moonlit beach, and her husband is wounded in the attack. Or was he the gunman?

Trends

Is Your Dog An Athlete?
(Time 12/20/1999)
Affluent suburbanites take up an unlikely new sport: competitive sheep herding.

Books

Love and Rockets
(Salon 1/26/2005)
Q&A with M.G. Lord, author of the memoir "Astro-Turf" -- with juicy revelations about the secret history of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.