Doug Cooper Spencer is a novelist and short fiction writer based in New York City. He is the author of eight books, including the This Place of Men Trilogy — This Place of Men, People Like Us, and Leaving Gomorrah — as well as A Letter to a Friend, Ella Pruitt, Gather the Bones, A River Runs Beneath Us: Voices and Writings of The Griot Book Project, and The Passenger.
Doug was born in 1954 and raised in Lincoln Heights, Ohio, a historically self-governed African American village north of Cincinnati. Lincoln Heights has also been home to renowned poet Nikki Giovanni and the legendary Isley Brothers. Doug attended Lincoln Heights Elementary and High School before graduating from Princeton High School in 1972.
After high school, Doug enrolled at Thomas More College, majoring in English Literature. He left before completing his degree in order to travel and pursue writing. After working various jobs, he joined the U.S. Navy, where he traveled extensively and began to seriously develop his voice as a writer. During his time in the military, Doug connected with many same-sex-loving men and women across various branches of service. As he began speaking openly in support of gay rights, he was ultimately discharged from the military.
Following his military service, Doug worked at the University of Cincinnati in administrative support while also lecturing part-time in creative writing, race studies, and LGBTQIA+ culture and development. He served on the University of Cincinnati’s LGBTQIA+ Faculty and Staff Advisory Board. His more than five decades of advocacy for human rights have deeply informed both his lectures and his literary work, providing a foundation of lived history, reflection, and insight.
Doug served as an in-house lecturer for the Cincinnati branch of the National Urban League’s Leadership Training Forum from 1989 to 1996 and also lectured at the Cincinnati Police Training Academy. During this same period, he contributed his expertise to the Ohio AIDS Task Force for the greater Cincinnati area. Doug also participated in the production of the award-winning 1996 documentary All God’s Children, a film examining the relationship between the Black LGBTQIA+ community and the Black church.
Together with his husband, film, tv and Broadway hairstylist and wig stylist Greg Cooper Spencer, Doug co-produced The Eyes Open Festival and served as president of The Eyes Open Festival Organization, a nonprofit dedicated to using the arts within the Black LGBTQIA+ community to educate, uplift, and promote wellness across communities.
Doug’s literary contributions have been widely recognized. In 2006, he was named one of Clik Magazine’s “Elite 25 Writers.” In 2016, his novel Ella Pruitt was honored by the Phillis Wheatley Book Awards as one of the best works of fiction of the year.
Doug is currently at work on a new novel, a memoir, and three screenplays.
Doug was born in 1954 and raised in Lincoln Heights, Ohio, a historically self-governed African American village north of Cincinnati. Lincoln Heights has also been home to renowned poet Nikki Giovanni and the legendary Isley Brothers. Doug attended Lincoln Heights Elementary and High School before graduating from Princeton High School in 1972.
After high school, Doug enrolled at Thomas More College, majoring in English Literature. He left before completing his degree in order to travel and pursue writing. After working various jobs, he joined the U.S. Navy, where he traveled extensively and began to seriously develop his voice as a writer. During his time in the military, Doug connected with many same-sex-loving men and women across various branches of service. As he began speaking openly in support of gay rights, he was ultimately discharged from the military.
Following his military service, Doug worked at the University of Cincinnati in administrative support while also lecturing part-time in creative writing, race studies, and LGBTQIA+ culture and development. He served on the University of Cincinnati’s LGBTQIA+ Faculty and Staff Advisory Board. His more than five decades of advocacy for human rights have deeply informed both his lectures and his literary work, providing a foundation of lived history, reflection, and insight.
Doug served as an in-house lecturer for the Cincinnati branch of the National Urban League’s Leadership Training Forum from 1989 to 1996 and also lectured at the Cincinnati Police Training Academy. During this same period, he contributed his expertise to the Ohio AIDS Task Force for the greater Cincinnati area. Doug also participated in the production of the award-winning 1996 documentary All God’s Children, a film examining the relationship between the Black LGBTQIA+ community and the Black church.
Together with his husband, film, tv and Broadway hairstylist and wig stylist Greg Cooper Spencer, Doug co-produced The Eyes Open Festival and served as president of The Eyes Open Festival Organization, a nonprofit dedicated to using the arts within the Black LGBTQIA+ community to educate, uplift, and promote wellness across communities.
Doug’s literary contributions have been widely recognized. In 2006, he was named one of Clik Magazine’s “Elite 25 Writers.” In 2016, his novel Ella Pruitt was honored by the Phillis Wheatley Book Awards as one of the best works of fiction of the year.
Doug is currently at work on a new novel, a memoir, and three screenplays.
