Philip Eil Email & Phone Number

I secured a contract with Steerforth to write a nonfiction book about one of my father’s medical school classmates, Dr. Paul Volkman, who is currently serving four consecutive life terms in federal prison for prescription drug-dealing. As part of my reporting for this project, which began in 2009, I have interviewed more than 100 people across 19 states, and also, with the help of the Rhode Island ACLU, filed a successful Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Administration, for unreleased evidence from Volkman’s trial. In August 2017, I published a 6,000-word version of the story in Cincinnati Magazine, “The Pill Mill that Ravaged Portsmouth,” which received an award from the local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. The book - "Prescription for Pain: How a Once-Promising Doctor Became the 'Pill Mill Killer'" - was released on April 9, 2024.The Columbus Dispatch called the book "a riveting true-crime page-turner." The Boston Globe called it "exhaustively reported." And BookPage wrote, "With Prescription for Pain, Eil joins the ranks of investigative journalists like Sam Quinones (Dreamland), Patrick Radden Keefe (Empire of Pain) and Beth Macy (Dopesick), adding a crucial piece of the puzzle to understanding an epidemic that continues to arrest the nation."

Providence, Rhode Island Area

Since the closing of the Providence Phoenix in October, 2014, I have contributed to various web and print publications, including The Atlantic, Men's Health, the Boston Globe, VICE, Salon, Columbia Journalism Review, the Huffington Post, the Jewish Daily Forward, and Boston Magazine.I've also resumed work on a true crime book project I began in 2009 about a med-school classmate of my father who's serving four consecutive life terms in prison for prescription drug dealing. In March, with the help of the Rhode Island ACLU, I filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for the long-overdue release of more than 10,000 pages of evidence from that doctor's 2011 criminal trial: http://www.riaclu.org/news/post/eil-foia-lawsuit-against-dea.In September 2015, I returned to adjunct teaching at Rhode Island School of Design's Literary Arts + Studies department. (More on this below.)

Providence

Between 2011 and 2020, I was an adjunct lecturer in RISD's Literary Arts + Studies department, where I designed and taught numerous undergraduate courses, including electives on nonfiction writing, journalism, and true-crime stories.

Providence, Rhode Island Area

As a full-term substitute during the Spring 2019 semester, I taught the course "Advanced Feature Writing" to undergraduates.

North Dartmouth, Massachusetts

As a full-term substitute during the Spring 2018 semester, I taught the course "Feature Writing" to grad students in UMass-Dartmouth's Master of Arts in Professional Writing & Communication program.

Providence, Rhode Island Area

I was the Phoenix's news editor and staff writer for 18 months, until the paper's closing in October 2014. During those months I:-Wrote over 45 cover stories (ranging from 1,500 to 4,500 words) on topics including the 2014 Providence mayor's race, the history of the Newport Jazz Festival, the ongoing 38 Studios scandal, a Brown University Mars expert, the legalization of same-sex marriage in Rhode Island, the legacy of Providence's world-famous "cosmic horror" writer H.P. Lovecraft, and the future of Providence's abandoned, iconic skyscraper, the "Superman" building.-Wrote over 100 additional, shorter, non-cover stories on topics including urban gun violence, drone surveillance, lube wrestling, food trucks, the US's first transgender high school sports coach, marijuana legalization, layoffs and other developments at the Providence Journal, and Rhode Island's colorful, homegrown boxing hero, Vinny Paz.-Edited and fact-checked the Phoenix's weekly political columnists, "Phillipe and Jorge."-Assigned and edited 500-1,000-word articles from freelancers for special issues and the paper's "This Just In" page.-Helped manage the paper's Twitter (10,400 followers) and Facebook (9,150 "Likes") accounts.-Represented the paper as a frequent guest on various local radio and TV shows, including WGBH's "Under the Radar with Callie Crossley" and Rhode Island PBS's "A Lively Experiment."

Providence, Ri

I interviewed piano tuners, ghost hunters, and crime-thriller authors; attended fashion shows, seized-goods auctions, and dueling piano bars; and wrote about pizza, novels, and the history of Providence.

Providence,Ri

As the paper's name suggests, I wrote about local Jewish stuff. Think: klezmer concerts and new-to-market circumcision devices. No, I'm not kidding about circumcision devices. It's called the "Accu-Circ."

Mfa, Nonfiction Writing

Bachelor'S Degree, English