Lee Cole

Lee Cole is an American author. His debut novel, Groundskeeping, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2022. His second novel, Fulfillment, was published by Knopf in 2025.

Early life and education Cole was born to Amanda Orr and Hal Cole in Paducah, Kentucky, and raised in the area. He has a sister, Madelyn Carpenter. He lived for a time in Louisville. He started out at the University of Kentucky, transferred to the University of Missouri–St. Louis, and graduated from the University of Louisville.

Career Cole's first novel, Groundskeeping, about an aspiring writer who moves back to his home state of Kentucky, where he works as a groundskeeper at a local college and enrolls in a creative writing workshop, was published by Knopf on March 1, 2022. It was a Read with Jenna pick by Jenna Bush Hager. His second novel, Fulfillment, about two half-brothers, one an academic, the other dreaming of becoming a screenwriter, was published by Knopf on June 17, 2025. The novel was inspired in part by the three years Cole spent working nights at a UPS hub, imagining his life if he had stayed at that type of job.