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Jonathan Miles
Born (1971-01-28) January 28, 1971 (age 53)
Cleveland, Ohio, United States
OccupationWriter
Citizenship United States
EducationUniversity of Mississippi
GenreFiction, Nonfiction
Notable works Dear American Airlines
ChildrenMcCaslin, Callie, Sloan
Website
www.jonnymiles.com

Jonathan Miles is an American journalist and novelist. His debut novel, “Dear American Airlines,” was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2008. The novel, written in the form of a complaint letter to the titular airline, was reviewed by Richard Russo in the New York Times Book Review.[1]

Early life

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Jonathan Miles was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1971. After his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, Miles ran away when he was 17, and eventually moved to Oxford, Mississippi.

He intermittently attended the University of Mississippi and took a writing class with Barry Hannah.[2] Finding work as a newspaper reporter for the Oxford Eagle, Miles met novelist Larry Brown who became his writing mentor.[3]

"I was indeed a $6/hour reporter for the Oxford Eagle, a small circulation afternoon daily, for three years or so, but never the editor or even an editor; in fact, I was fired. I was working as a bartender at a Mexican joint called Nacho Mama’s, but my girlfriend at the time was, I think, less than thrilled to be dating the Guy from Nacho Mama’s, and kinda nudged me into responding to the Eagle‘s help-wanted ad. But that job turned out to be invaluable: Filing 30 inches of copy a day, about school board meetings and rural murders and everything in between, is the best training tack for journalism that I know. You don’t have the time or the opportunity to be magazine-precious, and you quickly learn to appreciate the bald beauty of facts, the heat of deadlines, the cultivation of sources." [4]

Miles's writing caught the eye of Esquire editor Will Blythe, who published an account Miles wrote of an ingenious prison escape he'd investigated while writing for the Oxford Eagle. Miles soon developed a reputation as a keen observer of Mississippi culture, selling essays to various magazines such as Food & Wine, The New York Times Magazine and Outside.[2]

Literary career

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Jonathan Miles is the author of the novel "Dear American Airlines," which was named a New York Times Notable Book and a Best Book of 2008 by the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and others. It was also a finalist for the QPB New Voices Award, the Borders Original Voices Award, and the Great Lakes Book Award, and has been translated into five languages.

Miles is a contributing editor to several national magazines including GQ, The New York Times Magazine, Salon.com, The Oxford American, Food & Wine, Sports Afield, Outside, and others. His nonfiction has been published in the 1997, 1999 and 2000 editions of The Best American Sports Writing. Miles worked as a contributing editor at Men’s Journal beginning in 2001, where he wrote features and book columns. Miles’ Men’s Journal feature on bar fights appears in the 2005 edition of The Best American Crime Writing anthology. Miles also writes a monthly cooking column for Field and Stream, and wrote the "Shaken & Stirred" column, about the theory and practice of cocktails, for the "Sunday Styles" section of the New York Times section.

A former longtime resident of Oxford, Mississippi, he currently lives in New York's Hudson Valley with his wife Catherine, and their three children: McCaslin, Callie and Sloan.

References

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  1. ^ Russo, Richard (June 1, 2008). "Going Nowhere". The New York Times. New York, New York: The New York Times Corporation. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  2. ^ a b Ward, Steven (September 6, 2006). "Low Road to the High Glossies: An Interview with Freelance Writer Jonathan Miles". PopMatters.com. PopMatters Media, Inc. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  3. ^ Minzesheimer, Bob (May 30, 2008). "Reluctant flier Jonathan Miles takes a pen to (un)friendly skies". USA Today. Gannett. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  4. ^ http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/060906-miles-jonathan
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Category:American novelists Category:1971 births Category:Living people

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