Joshua D. Graber
Hi I'm Joshua. I currently work as a writer, editor, and software engineer, with a career that has spanned writing, tech, and education. Along the way, I've also worked as a professor, activist, tutor, bartender, landscaper, farm worker, and dishwasher.
Experiments
Experiments in digital poetics and programming
Writing
I'm trained as a fiction writer (M.F.A., University of Pittsburgh) and have published fiction, poetry, essays, and genre-bending work in journals and publications including Guernica, diagram, Glimmer Train, The New Guard Review's BANG!, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Adroit Journal, and Art Review.I also write and produce audio documentary, and I'm a founder of the storytelling collective Cool Molecules Media.
Recent fragments
View all fragments
In praise of: the lighting in this live performance of "Scary Monsters"
Bowie is glowing
Can you fool the psychic robot?
A puzzle from Games magazine and Martin Gardner
Three magazines for three collages
Games, Wired, Life
Bleeding Edge and the truth in margins and fragments
On the 24th anniversary of a catastrophe that brought only more catastrophe
Recent publications
www.post-gazette.comReview: Diving in too deep
What makes a person tie stones to their feet and slip into black water in hopes of acquiring a pearl? Or climb inside a leather-sealed wooden tube to row...
- www.post-gazette.com
Review: The muses of Andy Warhol
“I find women more interesting than men,” Laurence Leamer told me last month when we caught up. Leamer was in Pittsburgh to promote “Warhol’s...
www.theadroitjournal.orgA Review of Alex Higley’s True Failure
In 1997, during the first wave of a reality TV deluge that remains ongoing, a cast member of MTV’s Road Rules named Holly spoke about the nickname her cast used for the crew: “Big Brother.” Holly s…
- www.post-gazette.com
Review: Mara Van Der Lugt on the morality of having children
A few years ago, a healthy, professedly happy Mumbai businessman named Raphael Samuel publicly threatened to sue his parents — both lawyers —...
www.artreview.comGenre and the Newer Newness
Danielle Dutton’s ‘Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other’ attempts to galvanize literary art’s sense of perpetual death. What new forms can she offer?
www.mrbullbull.comMetaphors Toward ________________ | MrBullBull
Software
I currently work as a software engineer for Aura, a consumer digital safety company.I also maintain the open-source client applications for the Police Data Accessibility Project, dedicated to making police data accessible to researchers, journalists, and communities impacted by policing.I am occasionally available for engineering projects on a freelance basis. Please get in touch if you are interested in collaborating.
Editing
For nearly 15 years, I’ve worked as a literary editor of prose and poetry. As an undergraduate, I became the founding executive editor of The Quaker.In graduate school, I served as fiction editor for Hot Metal Bridge and as managing editor for Aster(ix).After earning my degree, I became the founding fiction editor of Word West Press, working on an array of remarkable books across styles and genres.I'm available for freelance editorial work—say hello or check out my profile on Reedsy.
Teaching and speaking
Every now and then, I put my professor hat back on and teach writing workshops or programming courses. If you’re looking for an engaging, improvisational speaker, let's chat.