DAVID JOSEPH
Bio
David Joseph is the author three award-winning collections of short fiction, The Old Men Who Row Boats and Other Stories, I Didn't Know What To Say, So I Just Said Thanks, and I Never Knew How Old I Was. His writing has been published in The Wall Street Journal, LA Times, London Magazine, DoubleTake Magazine, Motherwell, The Smart Set, and Rattle. He is a graduate of Hobart College and the University of Southern California’s Graduate Writing Program, where he was a recipient of the Kerr Fellowship and served as editor for the Southern California Anthology. In 2002, he Co-Founded the Nonprofit organization America SCORES LA, and he received The John Henry Hobart Fellowship for Ethics and Social Justice in 2007. He has taught at Pepperdine University and Harvard University. In 2019, he was awarded a position on the Fulbright Specialist Roster.
New Release
I NEVER KNEW HOW OLD I WAS
KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOKS OF 2024
David Joseph's third collection of short fiction, I NEVER KNEW HOW OLD I WAS, is available in Paperback and Kindle formats through Amazon.
"A deceptively profound book." - Kirkus Reviews
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Reviews
I NEVER KNEW HOW OLD I WAS
"The real strength of this collection is Joseph’s simple but effective writing. There are no dramatic plot twists here, just recognizable characters and situations animating simply told but powerful stories. Joseph doesn’t hit the reader over the head with his theme, though he identifies it in an author’s note as age, in its many different forms: “Age of our bodies. Age of our minds. Age of our hearts. Age of our souls.” Joseph covers all of that and more in this lovely collection, a deceptively profound book that will appeal to anyone who appreciates the power of good storytelling." - KIRKUS REVIEWS, Awarded the Kirkus Star
"A successful collection of short stories needs to be well-executed, instantly engaging, and lively enough to keep readers interested and eager. David Joseph accomplishes these things with great finesse...With no extra words to hide behind, David Joseph’s skill at crafting tightly orchestrated stories is on full display."
- INDIES TODAY, 5 STARS *****
"The tales are about ordinary people leading ordinary lives, but somehow David Joseph brilliantly extracts the extraordinary from the ordinary. The first-person narrators speak to us as though we’ve met them on a long bus ride, recounting simple but memorable experiences that they have had, and people they once knew or had met."
- READERS FAVORITE, 5 STARS *****
“An unassuming but remarkable collection of stories, I Never Knew How Old I Was by David Joseph is a heartfelt gathering of narrative philosophy…These pieces are carefully crafted, but ring with the authenticity of a casual chat. Impressive in its breadth of subject matter and delicacy of analysis, this collection is a kaleidoscopic portrait of nostalgia.”
- INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF BOOKS
Other Writing
Portal 6 Press
The Smart Set
Motherwell Magazine
The Wall Street Journal
Fairlight Books
Litro Magazine
Awards and Prizes
David Joseph is the recipient of The Paul Cave Prize for Literature, Next Generation Indie Book Award, and the Independent Press Award. He has been a finalist for the London Independent Story Prize and the William Shakespeare Award. In addition, his book, I Never Knew How Old I Was, was shortlisted for The Hawthorne Prize. In 2024, Readers Digest named I Didn’t Know What To Say, So I Just Said Thanks as one of the 38 Best Short Story Collections of All Time.
