Susann Cokal
Susann Cokal grew up with a roomful of books and Barbies, with whom she acted out elaborate stories. For a while she lived on the edge of wild land covered in sagebrush and cactus, playing in a dry creek bed. But she was born in California and has lived most of her life by the crashing waves and barking sea lions: In San Diego, she used to write on the beach; in Berkeley, she earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature; on the Central Coast, she bought her first wetsuit and published her first novel. She comes from a Danish family whose traditions have worked their way into her novels. The Kingdom of Little Wounds is set in a watery, witchy,…