David Allan Cates

David Allan Cates (born 1956) is an American novelist and poet, and the executive director of Missoula Medical Aid. His work has appeared in a number of publications, including The Sun, Outside Magazine, The Montanan, and The New York Times Sophisticated Traveler.

Cates has worked in a wide variety of jobs, however his focus is on writing, and he has received multiple awards in recognition of his work as an author.

He has a journalism degree and a Master's in Fine Arts from the University of Montana. His mother, the late Margaret "Marnie" (Lessig) Cates, worked at Oscar Mayer, while his father finished law school. His cousin is the lawyer and activist Lawrence Lessig.

Cates has degrees in journalism and fine arts, receiving his master's from the University of Montana, in Missoula.

He had written a paper in a Native American studies class that he was enrolled in, and found he enjoyed writing, deciding to take some journalism courses; he was 19 years old.

Cates has lectured at the University of Guanajuato, taught writing in a Mexican city prison, and classes on the short story in public high schools, including as a part-time faculty member of Pacific Lutheran University's MFA program.

Cates returned to the position as the executive director of Missoula Medical Aid in 2020. After stepping down from the position in 2017. Imagining Tanya, Austin Macauley, 2021. The Mysterious Location of Kyrgyzstan, (a chapbook of poetry) Satellite Press, 2016. Tom Connor's Gift: mad grief, mad love, and a crooked road home, Bangtail Press, 2014. Ben Armstrong's Strange Trip Home: a novel, Novelas Americanas, 2012. Freeman Walker, Unbridled Books, 2008. X Out of Wonderland: a saga, Zoland Books, 2006. Hunger in America, Simon & Schuster, 1992.

Awards and recognition Cates' work as an author, has been recognized with several awards, as listed below. 1992 Hunger in America was named as a New York Times Notable Book 2005 Montana Book Award Honor Books for the novel, X Out Of Wonderland 2008 Montana Book Award Honor Books for the novel, Freeman Walker 2010 Winner in the Montana Arts Council's Artist Innovation Award in prose 2010 Rubber Boy, selected as a notable story in the Best American Short Stories Awards 2015 Gold Medal Independent Publisher Book Awards, Best Regional Fiction (west-mountain) for Tom Connor's Gift