BIO

PUBLIC APPEARANCES

NEWS

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Author Tom Miller's books with links to order them; Miller's photograph and biography, and an opportunity to arrange for Miller to speak to your organization, school, or convention.
                                           Photo: Jay Rochlin

TOM MILLER has enlightened and entertained audiences at major book fairs, universities, and writers' conferences with his lively talks about his books and the many places his journeys have taken him. To arrange for Tom Miller to speak at your event, click here to inquire about available dates.

PUBLIC APPEARANCES

FORTHCOMING

June 22, 2010 (Tuesday)
6 pm - 7:30 pm
“Writing on the Edge: Borderlands Reading”
Prescott Public Library
215 E. Goodwin St., Prescott, Ariz.

September 11, 2010 (Saturday)
10 – 11:30 am
“Thornton Wilder’s Arizona Days”
Arizona Historical Society
949 E. 2nd Street
Tucson, Ariz.
(brunch & talk; fee)
details: 520-628-5774

September 28, 2010 (Tuesday)
5-7:30 pm
“Thornton Wilder’s Arizona Days”
Sunland Village East
2145 South Farnsworth
Mesa, Ariz.
details: 480-380-0106

October 26, 2010 (Tuesday)
3:00 pm
“Writing on the Edge: Borderlands Reading
UA Library – Special Collections
University of Arizona campus
Tucson

PREVIOUS

May 25-June 1, 2010
Leader, professional research group
Havana, Cuba

May 19-20, 2010 (Wed.-Thurs.)
Wizard Academy Writers Conference
in the hill country outside
Austin, Texas
click here for details

May 15, 2010 (Saturday)
8:00 pm
Opening for The Sisters Morales
Plaza Palomino
(SE corner, Swan/Ft. Lowell Rd.)
Tucson
click here for details

May 13, 2010 (Thursday)
Noon – 1 pm
“Writing on the Edge: Borderlands Reading”
Joel D. Valdez Main Library
101 N. Stone Ave., downtown Tucson
click here for details

April 22, 2010 (Thursday)
6 pm
participant, Lectura Continuada (marathon reading of Don Quijote)
Circulo de Bellas Artes
Madrid, Spain
click here for details

April 21, 2010 (Wednesday)
9-11 pm
group reading
Café Concierto La Fidula
Madrid, Spain

April 19, 2010 (Monday)
6 - 7:30 pm
Lecture to ABC Máster en periodismo class
ABC Newspaper building
Madrid, Spain

April 18, 2010 (Sunday)
participant, La Lectura Colectiva del Quijote (marathon reading of Don Quijote)
Centro Cultural
Argamasilla de Alba, Spain
click here for details

March 13-14, 2010 (Sat.-Sun.)
TUCSON FESTIVAL OF BOOKS
Univ. of Arizona campus
Saturday, 11:30–12:30 pm
Interview with Luis Urrea
Gallagher Theater, UA Student Union
Saturday, 1–2 pm
Moderator, U.S.-Mexico border panel
Gallagher Theater, UA Student Union
Sunday, 11:30 am
Conversation with Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana
UA Student Union, Ballroom South
McMurtry event CANCELED
Book signing to follow all events
click here for details

February 13, 2010 (Saturday)
Writers Round-Up Invitational Book Fair
Cady Hall
Patagonia, Ariz.
click here for details

February 9, 2010 (Tuesday)
5:30 pm
“Writing on the Edge: Borderlands Reading”
Copper Queen Library
Bisbee, Arizona

January 12, 2010 (Tuesday)
7 pm
"Thornton Wilder's Arizona Days"
The Rogue Theatre
300 University Blvd.
Tucson free/open to the public
click here for details

November 12, 2009 (Thursday)
3:30-5:30 pm
"Cuba From the Street"
College of Justice and Safety
Eastern Kentucky University
Richmond, Ky.

September 17, 2009 (Thursday)
7-9 pm
Cuba en Tucson
"A Tucsonan in Cuba"
Cuban food, live music
Little Chapel
University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
$5 donation
visit the website for details
download details (pdf file)

September 8 & 9, 2009 (Tues.-Wed.)
MIAMI UNIVERSITY, OXFORD OHIO
Tuesday, 4 pm
“Writing About Your International Experience”
Howe Center for Writing Excellence
Wednesday, 4:30 pm
“Voices from Cuba: The Revolution and the New Millennium”
MacMillan Hall
click here for details (pdf file)

April 26, 2009 (Sun.)
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
UCLA campus
12:30 – 1:30 pm
Lenart Auditorium, Fowler Museum
“America 2.0 – Who We Are Becoming”
3- 4 pm
Hoy (Spanish-language daily) Cultural Stage
“Language and Literacy: The Importance of Multi-lingual Abilities”
click here for details

March 14-15, 2009 (Sat.-Sun.)
TUCSON FESTIVAL OF BOOKS
Univ. of Arizona campus
Saturday, 12:30 – 1:30 pm
Talk at UA Alumni/Las Comadres de Las Américas author tent
UA Mall
Saturday, 2:30 - 3:30 pm
Conversation with Elmore Leonard
UA Student Union, Ballroom South
Sunday, 12:30 – 1:30 pm
Talk at UA Alumni/Las Comadres de Las Américas author tent
UA Mall
Sunday, 2:30 - 3:30 pm
Travel Writing panel
UA Integrated Learning Center
Book signing to follow all events
click here for details

February 14 (Saturday), 2009
Valentine’s Day
10 am – 3 pm
Writers Round-Up
Cady Hall
Patagonia, Ariz.
click here for details

December 5 & 6, 2008 (Fri. & Sat.)
Fri. 6 - 8 pm
Sat. 10 am - 1 pm
Holiday Book Fair
Arizona Historical Society
949 E. Second St.
Tucson, Ariz. 

November 1, 2008 (Saturday)
3 - 4 pm
Texas Book Festival
State Capitol #E2.010
Austin, Texas
click here for details

October 25, 2008 (Saturday)
3:00 - 3:45 pm
St. Pete Times Festival of Reading
St. Petersburg, Fla.
click here for details

October 16, 2008 (Thursday)
8:00 pm
Reeves Theatre
“Trading With the Enemy: 20 Years of Travel Though Castro’s Cuba”
University of Tampa
Tampa, Fla.

October 10, 2008
2 - 3:30 pm
“Trading With the Enemy: 20 Years of Travel Through Castro’s Cuba”
Latin American Studies Charlas Communications Bdg. #206
University of Arizona, Tucson
Open to the public

September 19, 2008 (Friday)
11:15 am - 12:30 pm
REFORMA National Conference
(National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking)
El Paso, Texas
click here for details

June 26, 2008 (CANCELLED)
Sanibel Leadership Conference
Sanibel Island, Florida

May 28-29, 2008 (Wed.-Thurs.)
I Conferencia Internacional sobre Moritz Thomsen
Centro Cultural Benjamín Carrión
Quito, Ecuador

May 23, 2008 (Friday)
5 pm
Presentation of the Geotourism Map of the Baja California Peninsula
National Geographic Society,
Center for Sustainable Destinations
La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico

March 31, 2008 (Monday)
Arizona Refugee Resettlement Program
Black Canyon Conference Center
Phoenix, Ariz.
Details: 480-893-7547

March 29, 2008 (Saturday)
Virginia Festival of the Book
Charlottesville, VA
click here for details

February 16, 2008
1 - 5 pm
Writers Round-Up
Cady Hall
Patagonia, Ariz.

February 14, 2008
2:00 pm
Institute for Learning in Retirement
Catalina Vista Recreation Center
14055 N. Del Webb Blvd.
Sun City Vistoso
Oro Valley, Ariz.
Open to all Sun City residents

November 20, 2007
Library/Special Collections
University of Arizona
Tucson, Ariz.

November 14-15, 2007
Arizona Library Association
Mesa, Ariz.

November 10-11, 2007
Miami Book Fair International
Miami, Fla.

November 2-3, 2007
Vegas Valley Book Festival
Las Vegas, Nev.

October 30, 2007
7:30 pm
Grosvenor Auditorium
National Geographic Society
Washington, D.C.

October 30, 2007 (POSTPONED)
8:30 am
Treasury Executive Institute
(private event)
Washington, D.C.

October 11, 2007
6:30 pm
English As a Second Language Success
    Awards
LaGrange Park, Illinois

 
Author Tom Miller's books with links to order them; Miller's photograph and biography, and an opportunity to arrange for Miller to speak to your organization, school, or convention.


  Revenge of the Saguaro

“Tom Miller loves the American Southwest the way a man loves a wayward, difficult woman, accepting her trashy, all-too-interesting history while knowing the heartbreaking truth. A rueful, wonderful, highly personal guide.”
— Martin Cruz Smith

“Miller is as quirky and delightful as ever, treating the Southwest as a vast midden from which he plucks many odorous but tasty treasures. The fun, as usual, comes from watching Tom digest.”
— Larry McMurtry

“[Miller is] a superb reporter and slyly funny stylist. This is a compulsively readable book by one of our best non-fiction writers.”
— San Francisco Chronicle

“Tom Miller has brought the region to life in his own special way…he adds to its reality and magic.”
—Pete Hamill, from his foreword

Revenge of the Saguaro:
Offbeat Travels Through America’s Southwest

Picture a map that highlights the American Southwest with some of adjoining Mexico as well. ROTS travels this turf, looking at its reality and myths. It answers questions such as –

* What is the sound of one billboard falling?
* Where does “La Bamba” come from?
* Does Rosa’s Cantina in “El Paso” really exist?
* Whence cometh the chimichanga? The bola tie? Black velvet art?
* How did the movies “Milagro Beanfield War” and “Salt of the Earth” come about?
* Who are the Pirates of the Pinacate?

Copper miners, Hollywoodlings, and songwriters, barflies, cockfighters, and eco-saboteurs all have their say. There’s a portrait of Cochise County, Arizona, closer to Mexico than to the United States but obeying the laws of neither, and we learn about the author’s escapades as a stringer for the New York Times. ROTS lovingly portrays this conflicted region with a clear moral vision, while reveling in the joys of the land and its people.

The book, somewhat expanded and updated from its previous life as "Jack Ruby’s Kitchen Sink," draws on the frightening story of a double homicide, in which a majestic 125 year old saguaro kills its assassin.

ENGLISH | German

click here for the latest review of Revenge of the Saguaro



Winner of the
Lowell Thomas Gold Award for Best Travel Book of the Year
given by the Society of American Travel Writers
 


(Tom receives the Nobel Prize in Literature?)
click here

 

Also By Tom Miller

Trading with the Enemy: A Yankee Travels Through Castro’s Cuba

“…may just be the best travel book about Cuba ever written.”
— Lonely Planet, Cuba

“…required reading for anyone who proposes to visit – or even talk about – Cuba today.”
— The Reader’s Companion to Cuba

“…una de las más serias aproximaciones a la realidad cubana de las últimas décadas realizada por un norteamericano…una visión objetiva de una realidad que es ya en sí misma desmesurada, agresiva y pasional.”
— Revista ENCUENTRO de la cultural cubana (Madrid)
ENGLISH | German


If you have a professional reason for learning first-hand about Afro-Cuban spiritualism,
let Tom know via the “leave a message for Tom” button below.
 

The Panama Hat Trail

“Among the best travel books ever written”
— National Geographic Traveler

“Part reportage, part travelogue, and all pleasure; it is written with enthusiasm and wit… filled with lively anecdotes, pungent asides, vivid scenes... a pleasure on every page of the journey."
— Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post

"Reminiscent of a masterly story by B. Traven...a thorough and entertaining job."
— Alex Shoumatoff, New York Times Book Review

ENGLISH | German | Spanish | French | Dutch 

 

 

How I Learned English

 “…a book of high linguistic adventure.”
— Frank McCourt

“Essential reading”
— Los Angeles Times

 ENGLISH | Spanish

 

 

On the Border

“Miller writes with wit, compassion, and truth.”
— The Lone Star Review

“Mr. Miller has drawn a lively sketch of this unruly, unpredictable place.”
— New York Times Book Review

ENGLISH | Spanish | French

 

 

Writing on the Edge
A Borderlands Reader

“Miller’s anthology is extraordinarily rich, complex, and unsettling.”
— Los Angeles Times


ORDER

 

 

 

Travelers’ Tales Cuba

“What Tom Miller has put together in Travelers’ Tales Cuba is as ‘Inside Cuba’ as you can get.”
— Elmore Leonard, author of Cuba Libre



 ORDER

 



NEWS

          . . . from the Bay Area
Word has reached us that Tom has won first prize in the coveted Solas Awards for 2010. The Solas Awards judges gave Tom the Gold award in the “Destinations” category for “A Border Rat in the Twilight Zone,” originally published in The Washington Post in February, 2009. He also won a Bronze award for “Notes on an Andean Pilgrim” in the “Travel Memoir” field. The prizes are administered by Travelers’ Tales, a publisher of travel stories.

            . . . from Europe
Spain’s Castilla-La Mancha regional government explains Tom’s activities during the summer of 2009: Click here.

           . . . from the Borderlands
For his "constant and energetic support" of the yearly Patagonia (Ariz.)Writers Roundup, on Valentine's Day 2009 Tom received the first annual Ann Caston Award from the Friends of the Patagonia (Ariz.) Library.

            . . . from South America
May 30, 2008, Tom Miller was honored in a ceremony in the Centro Histórico of Quito, with a proclamation designating him a Huésped Ilustre de Quito (Illustrious Guest of Quito) for his literary contribution to Ecuador, especially The Panama Hat Trail. The proclamation, a handsome 11”x16” certificate with a blood-red ribbon running down its side under the elaborate Quito city seal, was signed by the mayor.

BIO

Tom Miller has been writing about Latin America and the American Southwest for more than thirty years, bringing us extraordinary stories of ordinary people. Miller’s highly acclaimed adventure books include The Panama Hat Trail about South America, On the Border, an account of his travels along the U.S.-Mexico frontier, Trading With the Enemy, which takes readers on his journeys through Cuba, and, about the American Southwest, Revenge of the Saguaro. Additionally, he has edited three compilations, How I Learned English, Travelers’ Tales Cuba, and Writing on the Edge: A Borderlands Reader.

Miller, a veteran of the underground press of the 1960s, has appeared in Smithsonian, The New Yorker, LIFE, The New York Times, Natural History, and many other publications. He wrote the introduction to Best Travel Writing – 2005, and has led educational tours through Cuba for the National Geographic Society and other organizations. His collection of some eighty versions of “La Bamba” led to his Rhino Records release, “The Best of La Bamba.” His book On the Border has been optioned by Productvision for a theatrical film.

Miller was born and raised in Washington, D.C., attended college in Ohio, and since 1969 has lived in Arizona 65 miles north of the Mexican border. He has appeared on NBC, NPR, CNN, HBO, XM, and CSPAN, among other broadcast outlets, and was a major contributor to the four-volume Encyclopedia Latina.

Well-traveled through the Americas, Miller has taught writing workshops in four countries and his books have been published in Europe and Latin America as well as the United States. In recognition of his work the University of Arizona Library has acquired Miller’s archives and mounted a major exhibit of the author’s papers. He has been affiliated with that school’s Latin American Area Center since 1990, and makes his home in Tucson with his wife Regla Albarrán.

Leave a message for Tom