Tiya Miles is a celebrated American author, known for her works of fiction and non-fiction. Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Miles now resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and three children. She is a published author of multiple prize-winning works in the history of early American race relations, including "Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom," "The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story," and "The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits."
In addition to her non-fiction works, Miles has also ventured into historical fiction, with her debut novel "The Cherokee Rose: A Novel of Gardens and Ghosts" being a Lambda Literary Award Finalist. She has also shared her travels to historic sites of slavery in a published lecture series, and written various articles and op-eds on women’s history, history and memory, black public culture, and black and indigenous interrelated experience. Miles is a past MacArthur Foundation Fellow and Mellon Foundation New Directions Fellow, and a current National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholars Award recipient. She has taught on the faculty of the University of Michigan for sixteen years and is currently a Professor of History and Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at Harvard University.
Miles is also the author of "All That She Carried," which won a National Book Award for non-fiction, and "Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation." She has also written a study of haunted plantations and manor homes in the South, and is currently working on a novel set in Detroit and various non-fiction books about women's history and environmental issues. Miles is an avid reader of feminist mysteries and a passionate fan of old houses. She is also a loyal patron of Graeter’s ice cream in Cincinnati and Dairy Queen just about anywhere. In her free time, she enjoys spending time in old houses, walking along forest trails, and drinking hot chocolate.