Joseph Miller

Education and Certifications

• MFA University of Kansas
• BFA University of Colorado 

Biography

I joined the CSU English Department in 2011. I teach journalism, opinion writing, creative nonfiction, cinema studies, and composition, and I’m faculty advisor for The Uproar, CSU’s student newspaper.

I’ve written two books -- Cross-X: The Amazing True Story of How the Most Unlikely Team from the Most Unlikely of Places Overcame Staggering Obstacles at Home and at School to Challenge the Debate Community on Race, Power, and Education(2006 Farrar, Straus and Giroux), and US of AA: How the Twelve Steps Hijacked the Science of Alcoholism (2019, Chicago Review Press). Cross-X won the William Rockhill Nelson Award and Harry Chapin Award for nonfiction in 2007 and was selected as one of the best books of the year by the Chicago Tribune, Kansas City Star and Publishers Weekly.

My journalism has appeared in The New Republic, Salon, Vibe and the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, and has received awards from the National Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, Missouri Press Association, Kansas Press Association, Colorado Press Association, Colorado Society for Professional Journalists, Kansas City Press Club; I was twice a finalist for the Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Awards and John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism.

My creative nonfiction essays have appeared in The Missouri Review, New Letters, Pleiades, Decomp and The Rumpus, and my essay “Born Again and Again” received a special mention from the 2012 Pushcart Prize awards.

Most recently, I’ve been writing about cinema, with articles and reviews for Bright Lights Film Journal and Desistfilm. I also curate the International Auteur Film Series on campus.

Academic Areas

• Journalism
• Opinion Writing
• Creative Nonfiction
• Cinema Studies