Miranda Spivack
Journalist and Author, Backroom Deals in Our Backyards
Miranda Spivack is a veteran reporter and editor who specializes in stories about government accountability and secrecy, urban development, and immigration.
Her series “State Secrets” for revealnews.org forms the basis of her book Backroom Deals in Our Backyards about the underreported rise in state and local secrecy, seen through the eyes of five accidental activists who are confronted with barriers to information but find a way to overcome them and bring important change to their communities. The book was published in 2025 by The New Press. The series was a winner of SPJ’s 2017 Sunshine Award.
Previously, Miranda spent 20 years as an editor and reporter for The Washington Post, where as an editor on the Metro Desk, she designed a groundbreaking plan for local news coverage that resulted in deep coverage of under covered communities in the District, Maryland and Virginia. While at the Post, Miranda won several journalism awards, including First Place for Local Government Reporting in 2013 from the Maryland, Delaware, DC Press Association. Her stories, which she often finds by showing up and talking to people, frequently look beyond the headlines to unearth issues that have not been surfaced, or have been overlooked.
