[1] Coke was born in Amarillo, Texas, to a family she says were of French-Canadian, Alsatian, English, Irish, Welsh, Portuguese, Cherokee, Huron, and Muscogee descent.
She then completed her GED at age 16 where she shortly after began taking community education classes at North Carolina State University, studying photography, traditional arts, and writing.
[9] Hedge Coke's work Blood Run, a free verse poetry collection of 66 poems, was inspired by the traditions of the Native American Mound Builders and their earthworks.
Blood Run revives the history of the sites giving profound voice to humans, animals, plants and structures, also with political-ecological hope for the future to preserve ancient spiritual places.
[11] In Hedge Coke's Streaming, the poem, America I sing you back was born not out of anger but concern for what she saw happening in the United States 12 years ago, alarmed by the greediness of politicians to take natural resources from the land.