Coel, Margaret (1937-)

Margaret Coel was born in Denver, Colorado. She received her undergraduate education at Marquette University and went on to graduate studies at the University of Colorado and Oxford University. Her early career was in the newspaper business. She was a reporter for the Westminster Journal and wrote features for the Boulder Daily Camera.

Coel's literary career began in 1981 with the publication of her first nonfiction work, Chief Left Hand: Southern Arapaho. Four other nonfiction books, including the story of Colorado's state capitol, followed. The daughter of a railroad engineer, she published Goin' Railroading: A Century of the Colorado High Iron in 1986.

Coel's study of the Arapaho Nation influenced her fiction writing. Her first novel, The Eagle Catcher, was published in 1995 and was based largely ...