Ed Protzel

Ed Protzel grew up in St. Louis, the son of a Jewish father and a part-Cherokee mother. For a time he lived in an orphanage when his parents divorced, and left home after high school to live in St. Louis’s bohemian Gaslight Square entertainment district. These experiences gave Protzel a unique perspective, which is reflected in the traits of many of his fictional characters: outsiders and gamesters—male or female—on lonely quests, seeking justice, love, and fulfillment against society’s blindness.

​Protzel began writing both novels and screenplays while in college, working on them in his spare time while employed in securities management. He kept writing as he moved around the United States. He did some freelance work for 20th Century Studios and completed several original screenplays, one of which was optioned by a producer. But Protzel couldn’t abide what he calls Hollywood’s “hyper-Darwinism,” so he enrolled in grad school at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where he earned his master’s in English and creative writing.