Christopher Cole is a physician and author whose short stories and essays illuminate the tumultuous present using the limelight of the past. His work centers on themes such as the assault of civilization upon nature, the never-ending uphill battle of healers against disease, and the ongoing conflict of science versus the magical occult.
Cole hails from a small, cold, but lovely city in Minnesota. His home town is the rustbelt birthplace of Bob Dylan and was the innocent victim of an 1871 satirical speech by Senator Proctor Knott entitled, “The Untold Delights of Duluth.”
His literary career was initiated to general acclaim when he won a prize in a local elementary school writing contest for his poem “The Tree and its Usefulness to Me”.
He went on to study literature and music at Indiana University before pursuing graduate studies in immunology and medicine at Washington University in St. Louis and further medical training at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the National Cancer Institute.
His short story, “The Cold that Settles Sideways in My Bones: Five Portraits” was published in the Wilderness House Literary Review. He is currently at work on a host of short stories, essays, and two novels. His most recent work-in-progress is a historical novel about witchcraft called “The Grimoire” which features the story of a magical book and an accused colonial witch who was a blood relative of the author, Eunice “Goody” Cole.
He currently divides his time between northern Minnesota and Boston, Massachusetts.