Olivia A. Cole is an American writer who originates from Louisville, Kentucky. Cole is an author of young adult literature and other works who focuses most of her writing on the topics of womanhood, environmentalism and race.^[1]

Olivia A. Cole was raised in Louisville, Kentucky.^[1] In high school, she was selected to attend Kentucky Governor's School for the Arts' three-week Creative Writing summer program.^[2] Cole was an undergraduate student at Columbia College Chicago, where she earned her B.A. in Cultural Studies with a minor in Poetry in 2011.^[3] Cole had a love for writing at a young age, and wrote her first book when she was eight.^[4]

While Cole had an early start with her love of writing and reading literature, her debut novel, Panther in the Hive, came along in April 2014.^[5] She is the author of more than eight books.^[6] As an essayist, her works have been published in outlets that include The Oregon Literary Review, The Comstock Review, The Huffington Post, The Daily Dot, and xoJane.^[4]

In an interview, Cole describes how a middle school teacher prompted her to think about how a "white lie" differs from other falsehoods. This interaction served as a seed for the idea behind the title of her 2022 book, The Truth About White Lies.^[7]

Cole's book, Ariel Crashes a Train (2024), was selected by the National Book Foundation for one of ten titles on the 2024 Longlist of the National Book Award for Young People's Literature.^[8]

Cole and her husband share a daughter. Cole resides with her family in Louisville.^[9][10] In an interview she states that she became aware of her Queer identity, along with her whiteness and femaleness at age 13.^[9] In 2015, She published an essay about trauma stemming from abuse she had experienced as a 6th grader.^[9][11]

Outside of authoring books, Cole's social media presence bridges storytelling with her own personal moments. In 2016, she had a viral Tweet that was a quip about clam chowder during the lead up to Hurricane Mathew.^[12] In 2017, she had a viral moment on X and Reddit about her experience with her husband while house hunting. The couple described a haunted experience with similarities to the plot of the film, Get Out.^[10][13][14]

• Panther in the Hive (2014), ISBN 978-0-99161-553-7
• The Rooster's Garden (2016), ISBN 978-0-99161-554-4
• A Conspiracy of Stars (2018), ISBN 978-0-06264-423-7
• An Anatomy of Beasts (2019), ISBN 978-0-06264-426-8
• Cloud Parliament (2020), ISBN 978-0-99161-556-8
• Time to Roar (2020), ISBN 978-1-54760-371-8
• The Truth about White Lies (2022), ISBN 978-0-75955-411-5
• Dear Medusa (2023), ISBN 978-0-59348-574-3
• Where the Lockwood Grows (2023), ISBN 978-0-31644-932-8
• Ariel Crashes a Train (2024), ISBN 978-0-59364-468-3
• The Empty Place (2024), ISBN 978-0-31644-953-3