Joseph Earl Thomas is the author of Sink, a memoir, finalist for the William Saroyan International Writing Prize; the novel God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer, winner of the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize; and the forthcoming story collection Leviathan Beach (Penguin Random House, 2027). His prose and poetry has been published in The Paris Review, The Verge, VQR, Harper’s, N+1, Vanity Fair, and elsewhere. His honors include the 2020 Chautauqua Janus Prize, The Anisfield-Wolf Fellowship in Writing and Publishing, and fellowships from The Miami Bookfair, Fulbright, and The Hermitage. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame’s MFA program in prose, he earned his PhD in English from The University of Pennsylvania. He teaches writing at Sarah Lawrence College, and Literature courses at The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research.

The Poets & Writers Series is sponsored by the Temple University MFA Program in Creative Writing, with the assistance of the Department of English. Each year a number of poets and fiction writers are invited to read from and discuss their work to members of both the Temple community and the local Philadelphia arts scene. All events are free and open to the public.