Davis Miller (born 1963) is an American author, notable for a series of works that combine reportage and autobiography. Miller's books include The Tao of Muhammad Ali and The Tao of Bruce Lee: a martial arts memoir,[1][2] both of which have been number-one bestsellers in the United Kingdom and Japan, as well as The Zen of Muhammad Ali: and other obsessions, a collection of personal essays, memoir and short fiction that was published exclusively in the U.K., where it was a number-eight bestseller. His most recent book is Approaching Ali: A Reclamation in Three Acts, which was published on 1 March 2016 in the United States and the United Kingdom, and on 3 September 2016 as En Busca de Muhammad Ali in Spain. His story 'My Dinner with Ali' was judged one of the twenty best magazine stories of the 20th Century.[3]
The Sunday Magazine Editors Association judged Miller's first published story, "My Dinner with Ali," the best essay to have appeared in a newspaper magazine in the U.S. in 1989. A shorter version of "My Dinner with Ali" was nominated by Sport magazine for the 1990 National Magazine Award and was the inspiration for the creation of The Best American Sports Writing (Houghton Mifflin) yearly anthology. Houghton Mifflin published Miller's story, "The Zen of Muhammad Ali," in the 1994 edition of The Best American Sports Writing.
"My Dinner with Ali" was selected by David Halberstam as one of the best twenty pieces of sports writing of the 20th Century and has been anthologized in The Best American Sports Writing of the Century (Houghton Mifflin, 1999), in The Muhammad Ali Reader (Ecco Press, 1998), in The Zen of Muhammad Ali and Other Obsessions (Vintage UK, 2002), and in The Beholder's Eye: America's Finest Personal Journalism (Grove/Atlantic, 2005)."
|
Main article: Approaching Ali |
"My Dinner with Ali" was developed into an opera for the Washington National Opera by composer D. J. Sparr. Along with Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist Mark Campbell, Davis Miller wrote the libretto for the opera, which received its world premiere in June 2013 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The title of the opera is Approaching Ali.[4] Performances of the opera have also been produced by the North Carolina Opera. In January 2023, Opera Las Vegas premiered a production of Approaching Ali. In April 2023, Opera Louisiane premiered its production of the opera.
|
Main article: The Tao of Muhammad Ali |
In July 1994, Miller won the first Creative Nonfiction Writers'Project Grant awarded by the North Carolina Arts Council. The judge for this grant, which Miller used to complete his first book, The Tao of Muhammad Ali, was novelist and National Public Radio book reviewer Alan Cheuse.
Miller's first book, The Tao of Muhammad Ali: a fathers and sons memoir, was published in hardcover in December 1996 by Warner Books. The Tao of Muhammad Ali was published in the United Kingdom in February 1997 by Vintage; it reached number one on several English bestseller lists, including those of the Independent (nine weeks) and of the Observer (seven weeks), as well as bestseller lists in both Ireland and Scotland.
Miller wrote a radio play of The Tao of Muhammad Ali, which was broadcast in six parts in January 1998 by BBC Radio 4. The Tao of Muhammad Ali was also a bestseller in Japan (Aoyama Publishing). It was judged the Best Nonfiction Book of 1997 by book reviewers at several of Japan's largest newspapers, including Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun, among others. In Italy, it won the thirty-sixth annual Premio Bancarella prize for best sports book published in 1999.
Miller's second literary memoir, The Tao of Bruce Lee: a martial arts memoir, about growing up in western North Carolina, about the author's martial arts experiences, and about the ways he has been influenced by Bruce Lee, was published in August 2000 in hardcover by Crown Publishing. Excerpts from The Tao of Bruce Lee were published in Men's Journal (8,000 words), Washington Post Magazine (3,000 words), Esquire (5,000 words),(London) Independent on Sunday Review (4,000-word cover story), Arena (5,000 words), Panorama magazine (Australia), M Quarterly (Japan), and Melbourne (Australia) Age, among others. The Tao of Bruce Lee was published by Vintage in the United Kingdom; it rose to number three on the Independent's bestseller list (four weeks). The Tao of Bruce Lee was judged one of the best ten sports books of 2000 by the editors of Booklist magazine.
Miller's fiction and nonfiction short stories have been published in Esquire, Rolling Stone, GQ, Men's Journal, Sports Illustrated, and many other American magazines, as well as in Arena (England), United Kingdom editions of Esquire and GQ, in Der Spiegel (Germany), and as cover stories in magazines published by the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Dallas Morning News, Denver Post, Detroit Free Press, Independent on Sunday (London), Louisville Courier-Journal, Melbourne (Australia) Age, Melbourne (Australia) Herald Sun, Miami Herald, Perth (Australia) Sunday Times, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sydney (Australia) Telegraph, Washington Post, and Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales) among numerous others; and as cover pieces in many publications worldwide, including Features sections of the Chicago Sun-Times, Detroit News, Honolulu Advertiser, Houston Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Louisville Courier-Journal, (New York) Newsday, (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman, Raleigh News and Observer, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Seattle Times, Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald, Tampa Tribune, Toledo Blade, Washington Post, and various others.
Miller's stories have been anthologized in The Beholder's Eye: America's Finest Personal Journalism (Grove/Atlantic, 2005), The Best American Sports Writing of the Century (Houghton Mifflin, 1999), The Muhammad Ali Reader (Ecco Books, 1998), and The Best American Sports Writing 1994 (Houghton Mifflin, 1993), among others.
Miller has also written two ninety-minute documentary films, Bruce Lee: Curse of the Dragon for Warner Brothers and for the A&E television network, and Death by Misadventure for an independent producer. In addition, in 2004 Miller was the writer and presenter of a series of thirty-minute documentaries for BBC Radio 4.
Miller has four children, Johanna, Isaac, Sam, and Silas.
