Mark Coggins is the Choctaw and American author of a series of novels featuring private eye protagonist August Riordan. He is also a photographer.

Biography

Coggins was born in New Mexico in 1957 and attended

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, where he earned an undergraduate degree in International Relations, a masters in Computer Science and was elected to the

Phi Beta Kappa Society The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ar ...

.Official Bio
markcoggins.com.Noir Guy
stanfordmag.org, January 2008. He is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation.Artist Registry
choctawnation.com. While at Stanford, Coggins took creative writing classes with Tobias Wolff and Ron Hansen and wrote the first short story featuring August Riordan in a class for Hansen. This was published in 1986 in ''The New Black Mask'', a revival of the famous Black Mask pulp magazine that launched the careers of Dashiell Hammett and

Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...

.Back to Black, Part IV
therapsheet.blogspot.com, November 27, 2007. Coggins has worked in the Silicon Valley for such companies as

Hewlett Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

and

Netscape Netscape Communications Corporation (originally Mosaic Communications Corporation) was an American independent computer services company with headquarters in Mountain View, California and then Dulles, Virginia. Its Netscape web browser was onc ...

Actuate Names Mark Coggins as New Senior Vice President of Engineering
, actuate.com. and although Riordan as a character is something of a

technophobe Technophobia (from Greek τέχνη ''technē'', "art, skill, craft" and φόβος ''phobos'', "fear"), also known as technofear, is the fear or dislike of advanced technology or complex devices, especially computers. Although there are numerou ...

, Coggins' novels often explore high technology themes and Silicon Valley culture.How Greedy Was My Valley?
salon.com, September 18, 2002.

Career

Coggins' first book, '' The Immortal Game'', dealt with the theft of chess-playing software similar to that run on

Deep Blue Deep Blue may refer to: Film * ''Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads'', a 1992 documentary film about Mississippi Delta blues music * Deep Blue (2001 film), ''Deep Blue'' (2001 film), a film by Dwight H. Little * Deep Blue (2003 ...

and was nominated for the Shamus AwardThe Shamus Awards
thrillingdetective.com. and the Barry Award.Barry Awards
, deadlypleasures.com. ''

Runoff Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to: * RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program * Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed * Runoff or run-off, a stock market ...

'' described a fictional mayoral election in San Francisco where the results were altered by individuals who hacked the city's electronic voting machines. '' The Big Wake-Up'' envisioned an altered version of the bizarre history of the peripatetic remains of Argentina's most famous first lady, Eva Perón, and won the Gold Medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards in the Mystery/Suspense/Thriller category.The Story Behind the Story: The Big Wake-Up by Mark Coggins
therapsheet.blogspot.com, November 03, 2009.Announcing the Results of the 2010 Independent Publisher Book Awards
independentpublisher.com, May 25, 2010. ''

Prom Night and Other Man-made Disasters A promenade dance, commonly called a prom, is a dance party for high school students. It may be offered in semi-formal black tie or informal suit for boys, and evening gowns for girls. This event is typically held near the end of the school year ...

'' was somewhat of a departure. A collection of humorous essays describing episodes in his life from school, career, and relationships, it features a number of anecdotes from his childhood in Phoenix, Arizona, including the title essay, "Prom Night," the improbable story of how shy and socially-awkward Coggins brought the homecoming queen of Central High School to the senior prom.Prom Night and Other Man-made Disasters by Mark Coggins
lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com, May 31, 2012.

Works

Novels

* '' The Immortal Game'' (1999). * ''

Vulture Capital A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and So ...

'' (2002). * ''

Candy From Strangers Candy, also called sweets (British English) or lollies ( Australian English, New Zealand English), is a confection that features sugar as a principal ingredient. The category, called '' sugar confectionery'', encompasses any sweet confection ...

'' (2006). * ''

'' (2007). * '' The Big Wake-Up'' (2009). * '' No Hard Feelings'' (2015). * '' The Dead Beat Scroll'' (2019).

Non-fiction

* ''

'' (2012).

Photography Monographs

* '' Street Stories'' (2021).

External links

Official siteReview
of ''The Immortal Game'' in the San Francisco Chronicle
Podcast
of the first chapter of ''Candy from Strangers'' from KQED-FM

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coggins, Mark 1957 births 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists American male novelists American mystery writers Choctaw people Living people Native American novelists Stanford University alumni Writers from California 20th-century Native Americans 21st-century Native Americans