[1] Cole moved back to the United States at the age of 17 to attend Western Michigan University for one year, then transferred to Kalamazoo College, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1996.

[10] Cole is the author or co-author of several books, among them the novella Every Day Is for the Thief;[11][12] the novel Open City;[5] a collection of more than 40 essays, Known and Strange Things;[13][14] and a photobook, Punto d'Ombra (2016) (published in English in 2017 as Blind Spot).

[18] Written in 2011 and published in 2012, the novel focuses on "Nigerian immigrant Julius, a young graduate student studying psychiatry in New York City, has recently broken up with his girlfriend and spends most of his time dreamily walking around Manhattan.

"[20] The Independent characterizes Open City as "hypnotic", "transfixing", and a "striking debut" for Cole,[21] while Time referred to the novel as "a profoundly original work, intellectually stimulating and possessing of a style both engaging and seductive.

Writing for the New York Times, the poet Claudia Rankine called it "an essential and scintillating journey,"[23] and singled out, in particular, his essays on photography, wherein he "reveals [his] voracious appetite for and love of the visual."

[26][27][28] The original series of tweets that precipitated the article elicited a response from NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof whom Cole named as an example of a white savior.

"[26] Alongside Michael Ondaatje, Francine Prose, Peter Carey, Rachel Kushner, and Taiye Selasi, Cole was one of six writers who protested the PEN American Center gala honoring the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo with its "Freedom of Expression Courage" award in April 2015 by withdrawing as co-hosts of the event.

[34] For Performa 17, Cole created the instillation Black Paper (2017) in which his photographs and videos were accompanied by a score of field recordings and readings of incisive text.