JOE COCCARO is vice president and executive editor at Koehler Books. Joe is also the chief editor in charge of acquisitions. Joe joined the company after nearly three decades as reporter, columnist, editor and senior newsroom manager at several major newspapers, including Virginia’s largest and most widely circulated daily, The Virginian-Pilot.

Joe holds an MA in writing from the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University, where he also studied as an undergraduate. Joe has won dozens of individual writing awards and has edited work that has been nationally recognized. He has coached hundreds of news writers, novelists and non-fiction authors, and has taught writing at two Virginia universities. He also has ghostwritten books and has a novel underway. Joe is a competitive runner and cyclist, and five-string banjo picker. He lives in Cape Charles, VA on the Chesapeake Bay.