Kathryn Miles

Kathryn Miles grew up on the Midwestern prairie, where she cultivated a strong desire to be the next Laura Ingles Wilder.
When that role continued to elude her, she turned her attention elsewhere and became a cub reporter covering local oddities like Zamboni drivers, pumpkin chunkers, and barge captains. She took a B.A. in Philosophy from Saint Louis University in 1996 and received her PhD from the University of Delaware in 2001.

Now residing in coastal Maine, Miles still dedicates her writerly life to the uncovering of previously ignored narratives and characters. She is the author of All Standing, which details the miraculous journeys of the famine ship Jeanie Johnston, and Out With Ari, a memoir recounting her year as a canine naturalist. An excerpt of the book was named a Best American Essay by Houghton Mifflin in 2009; two years later, her essay “Killing Laughter” was named a notable essay by the same publication. Since that time, Miles has written about subjects that include Puerto Rican street food, eel poachers, homing pigeons, and lifesavers. Her writing has appeared in publications like Alimentum, Between Song and Story, Ecotone, History Magazine, Outside, and Terrain, where she is also an editorial board members and regular columnist.

Kathryn also serves as professor of Environmental Writing at Unity College and as part of the faculty for the Chatham University MFA low-residency program. She is editor-in-chief of Hawk & Handsaw: The Journal of Creative Sustainability and a scholar-in-residence for the Maine Humanities Council.