The Spy's Little Zonbi

Cole Alpaugh began his newspaper career in the early ’80s at a daily paper on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, where he covered everything from bake sales to KKK meetings. He moved on to a paper in Massachusetts, specializing in feature essays. His stories on a Hispanic youth gang and the life of a Golden Gloves boxer won national awards. At his most recent newspaper job, a large daily in Central New Jersey, he was given the freedom to pursue more “true life” essays, including award-winning pieces on a traveling rodeo and an in-depth story on an emergency room doctor. The doctor’s story ended when the physician brought back to life an elderly woman who’d once been his children’s babysitter. The essay was nominated by Gannett News Service for a 1991 Pulitzer Prize. Cole also did work for two Manhattan-based news agencies, covering conflicts in Haiti, Panama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and guerrilla raids conducted out of the refugee camps along the Thai/Cambodia boarder. His work has appeared in dozens of magazines, as well as most newspapers in America. Cole’s first novel, The Bear in a Muddy Tutu, was published by Camel Press, an imprint of Coffeetown Press, in 2011. Coming Soon from Coffeetown: Cole’s third novel, The Spy’s Little Zonbi. Cole is currently a freelance photographer and writer living in Northeast Pennsylvania, where he also coaches his daughter’s soccer team. You can find him online at www.colealpaugh.com.