William Bole

William Bole is a writer with a background in both daily journalism and academia. He writes at the three-way intersection of religion, public affairs, and the arts, while often steering into other areas of interest, especially higher education and management. In addition, he teaches nonfiction writing at Boston College, where he serves primarily as director of communications at the Carroll School of Management.

Bole’s work has appeared in outlets ranging from the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post, to Forbes, Utne Reader, and Publishers Weekly, as well as Commonweal, America, Christian Century, and Cognoscenti.

His coauthored books have dealt with such paired topics as religion and organized labor, forgiveness and international conflict, faith and doubt, and ideas and business. His coauthors have included a retired American ambassador, a PBS news anchor, two activist priests, and two management gurus. The books have illustrated his approach to limning ideas with the tools of journalism and narrative nonfiction.

Bole spent eight years as a research fellow of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University (2000-2007). He has also produced studies on religion and American public life for the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Commonweal Foundation, while doing research and writing for similar institutions. These include the Lilly Endowment; Georgetown’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate; Thirteen/WNET (the Educational Broadcasting Corporation); IMD (International Institute for Management Education) in Lausanne, Switzerland; and several Boston College groups, including the Boisi Center for Religion and Public Life, the Center for Corporate Citizenship, the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics, and the Church in the 21st Century Center.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he lives in Boston with his family of four.