May 15, 2012
Jennifer Miller ’08 turned her time at Columbia Journalism School into her debut novel, “The Year of the Gadfly,” published recently by Houghton Mifflin.
The book features Iris Dupont, an aspiring teenage journalist who looks to the ghost of Edward R. Murrow for guidance. Dupont's story intersects with that of Jonah Kaplan, a failed microbiologist-turned-biology-teacher, as both work to uncover a secret society in their remote New England town. Iris’ dogged pursuit of the truth—and her education about the personal cost of such idealism—were inspired by Miller’s time at the J-School: by lessons learned in classes, from faculty, and from classmates.
Washington Post columnist David Ignatius writes, “It's hard to resist any novel whose young journalist heroine hallucinates that she’s in conversation with Edward R. Murrow. But Jennifer Miller has also written a book with the feel of real life—part science experiment, part mystery, part a coming-of-age narrative sorting out the truth about one’s friends and enemies.”
Miller is also the author of “Inheriting The Holy Land,” published by Ballantine in 2005. Her journalism has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, Marie Claire, Fast Company, Smithsonian.com, Salon.com, Guernica.com, the Columbia Journalism Review, The Millions and the Daily Beast. In addition to her degree in journalism, Miller has an MFA in Writing from Columbia University School of the Arts. She is a native of Washington, DC and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. @PropJen
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