David Allan Cates

Who is David Allan Cates?

David Allan Cates is a novelist and director of Missoula Medical Aid. He is the author of four novels, Hunger in America, X Out of Wonderland, a farce about the global economy modeled on Voltaire's Candide, Freeman Walker, a novel about a mulatto ex-slave journeying from a Southern Plantation, to a London prep school, to the Civil War battlefields and finally the American gold camps, and in 2012 "Ben Armstrong's Strange Trip Home". His work has appeared in a number of publications which include The Sun, Outside Magazine, The Montanan, and the New York Times Sophisticated Traveler.

Along with writing, Cates finds the time to be the executive director of Missoula Medical Aid. They focus on leading groups of medical professionals to provide health and surgery services in Honduras. Specifically, Cates teaches classes on the short story in public high schools and is also a part-time faculty member of Pacific Lutheran University's MFA program.

He has worked as a professional basketball player in Central America, a fishing guide on the Smith River and raised cattle on his family's farm in Wisconsin, and as a high school writing teacher.