Following Curiosity: Award-Winning Writer Jeff Koehler’s Journey

For Jeff Koehler (‘91) award-winning author of 10 books, there was no “defining moment” that led him to discover his passion for telling stories. Instead, a string of events led him to where he is today.

His work has earned him a James Beard Award, two International Association of Culinary Professionals awards and various Gourmand “Best in the World” awards. His books have been selected as an Editors’ Choice by The New York Times and translated into 11 languages.

Koehler will be visiting Gonzaga in October, featured at a Visiting Writers Series event on Tuesday, Oct. 13, at 7 p.m. in Hemmingson Auditorium.

Koehler’s career has been formed by a lifelong curiosity about people, places, culture, and the stories that connect them all. However, when he began his studies at Gonzaga, he didn’t know exactly what career he wanted.

After graduating, he planned to travel in Africa for a year, a year that ultimately lasted four years until he landed in London.  There, he pursed a master’s degree in theater through King’s College London and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, offering both the creative and academic sides to drama.

Koehler initially expected to continue his academic studies, eventually earn a Ph.D. and become an educator. However, his perspective changed while writing an essay on Federico García Lorca’s play “Blood Wedding”.

“I realized how much more exciting it was to bring “Blood Wedding” to life than to pin it down by writing about the symbolism of the color red in it,” Koehler says. This was the beginning of his journey. He then switched advisors and did a creative thesis, adapting a novel for the stage.

“So that was when I discovered the desire for a creative life,” he says.

After London, Koehler moved to Barcelona and spent several years writing plays. In 2000 he and his wife moved to California, which is where he would begin freelance writing.

Without any connections in the industry, he started sending out story ideas and short pieces to newspapers and magazines around the country. His first major sale was a Sunday travel feature for the Los Angeles Times.

He would eventually develop a knack for writing about travel, architecture, and food, which he found was a particularly interesting way for him to tell stories about culture and place.

In 2002, Koehler moved back to Spain, and in 2006 he published his first cookbook, “La Paella: Deliciously Authentic Rice Dishes from Spain’s Mediterranean Coast.” Since then, his work has evolved beyond cookbooks into narrative nonfiction, though his interest in the intersections of landscape, culture, and history has remained at the center of his writing.

His latest work, “Matisse in Morocco,” was published in 2025 and explores the life of French artist Henri Matisse’s time in Morocco. While the book marked a shift from the culinary subjects of much of Koehler’s previous work, it continued his interests in how a particular place can shape culture and creative expression. It was selected by The Art Newspaper for their book club pick and named one of the The Wall Street Journal’s top books of the month.

“My books begin with a curiosity that slowly festers into an obsession,” Koehler says of the decade-long project.

For “Matise in Morocco,” Koehler retraced the artist’s routes, visited places he painted, and stayed at the same hotel where he got to look through the same window that inspired the artist, “trying to imagine what it was like for him there. I really wanted to understand, and capture, that sense of place,” Koehler continues.

Experiencing a place is only one part of the writing process. Koehler’s research also takes him into libraries and archives where he searches for details that help bring a life to a story.

Koehler also credits Gonzaga for its contribution in shaping the writer he would become, saying the liberal arts education taught him the importance of communication.

“Rather than doing one thing well, if you can communicate, you can do anything,” he recalls being told.

Gonzaga professor of English Tod Marshal credits Koehler eagerness for exploration and his representation of what Gonzaga hopes to foster in its students.

"He’s an example of what we try to do: help shape people who have wide interests, who explore those interests, and who try to bring what they’ve learned to others,” Marshall says. “I’ve watched his career take off; I’ve admired his ambition and curiosity.”

That same curiosity has taken him around the world, but he still has countless stories he wants to share.

“There is just a seemingly endless amount of great stories — about places, about people — to be told,” he says.

From his early explorations through Africa to his creative turning point in London, Koehler’s path has never been defined by a single moment. Instead, his journey has been guided by curiosity and a desire to tell the stories he discovers along the way.

Be sure to catch Jeff Koehler on campus at the Visiting Writers Series event Oct. 13.