Coke Newell

Who is Coke Newell?

Clayton Corey "Coke" Newell is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose professional career outside of freelance is often defined by his decade-plus stint in public relations for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Newell grew up deep in the Colorado mountains south and west of Denver, inspired by his readings of Thoreau, Black Elk and Kerouac. He converted to the LDS faith as a teenager and later served a mission to Colombia.

Research for his first published book, Dying Words: Colombian Journalists and the Cocaine Warlords was funded by the Scripps Howard Foundation and the InterAmerican Press Association. Composed as a bachelor's degree thesis, it is perhaps the earliest study of the Colombian media's bold exposure of that nation's militant drug cartels.

After his return, Newell graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the journalism program at Colorado State University and remains a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Society of Journalists and Authors. He later received a Master's degree in communications from Montana State University and has a biography in Who's Who in America.

Hired in 1993 as a writer and media relations officer for the LDS Church, his work led to his being quoted in "thousands" of media outlets and the opportunity to write Latter Days : A Guided Tour Through Six Billion Years of Mormonism for St. Martin's Press. The book performed well nationally, perhaps in part due to the national prominence of frequently interviewed church president Gordon B. Hinckley and Newell's own iconoclastic writing style.