A Boulder, Colorado native, Coleman graduated from Fairview High School (co-captain of the 1987 football state champions)and earned a BA and MA from the University of Colorado. He recieved his Ph. D. from Yale University in 2003 and has written two books, Vicious: Wolves and Men in America (Yale, 2004) and Here Lies Hugh Glass: a Mountain Man, a Bear, and the Rise of the American Nation (Hill & Wang, 2012). Vicious won the Jackson prize from the Western History Associaton and the Dunning prize from the American Historical Association. Coleman teaches history at the University of Notre Dame and lives in South Bend, Indiana with his partner, two children, and bassett hounds.