© Marion Ettlinger

Joel Rose was born in Los Angeles, and was raised in New York City, where his father worked as a waiter at the Stage and Carnegie Delis.  He received a B.A. in Literature from Hobart College and an MFA from Columbia in 1973. After working as a TV writer, his first daughter was born, and he moved back to the Lower East Side neighborhood where his mother was raised.  It was during those years that he was inspired to write his first novel, Kill the Poor in 1988. 

Joel Rose has published two literary magazines, the Seneca Review and Between C&D.  His other books include Kill Kill Faster Faster (1998), The Big Book of Thugs (1996) and a novel due out in February 2001 called Anything that Moves.  Kill the Poor is being produced for film by John Malkovish's Mr. Mudd Productions, also in February 2001.  Mr. Rose is one of the writers and the editor for The Urban Historicals Series.