Kathryn Miles says her interest in writing and research started with her internship at the Peoria Journal Star while still a student at Metamora High School.
“It was an exercise in listening and learning to understand what other people are saying,” said Miles, a 1992 high school graduate who went on to earn degrees at St. Louis University and the University of Delaware before settling in the state of Maine in 2001.
Now with five books behind her, Miles has blazed an environmental trail with her literary efforts. Her latest work, “Trailed: One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders,” published earlier this year, took five years to complete.
The author said the book represents “a deep dive into evidence” surrounding the 1996 murder of two young women at the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Miles is presently working with a production company on a film about the crime.
Other books written by Miles include “Superstorm,” a detailed look at the impact of Hurricane Sandy, the storm that devastated the East Coast in 2012, and “Quakeland: On the Road to America’s Next Devastating Earthquake.”
“For ‘Quakeland,’ I went on a road trip to find out what was being done to prepare for our next great earthquake,” said Miles, noting that she didn’t just visit sites in California but also the Midwest where the New Madrid earthquakes (named after the Missouri town) occurred in Missouri between December 1811 and February 1812, some of the strongest ever registered in the United States.
An avid backpacker, Miles has also written extensively for Outside magazine.
