Joseph Monninger has published novels for adults and teens and three works of nonfiction. The New York Times Book Review has said of Monninger that he “comes to writing with his five sense wide open”. His work has appeared in American Heritage, Scientific American, Readers Digest, Glamour, Playboy, Story, Fiction, The Boston Globe, Sports Illustrated and Ellery Queen, among other publications. He has twice received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and has also received a fellowship from the New Hampshire Council for the Arts. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso, from 1975-77. He is a Professor of English at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire where he lives in a converted barn near the Baker River.