Joseph Coulson is a novelist, poet, playwright, and musician. His first novel, The Vanishing Moon (2004), published as a Harvest Book from Harcourt and in German and French translations, was selected for the Barnes & Noble Great New Writers series and won the Book of the Year Award, Gold Medal in Literary Fiction, from ForeWord Magazine. His second novel, Of Song and Water (2007) enjoyed both critical and commercial success in France, fueled by an award-winning translation by Judith Roze and reviews in leading publications, including Le Monde. Three books of poetry appeared earlier: The Letting Go, A Measured Silence, and Graph. His stage play, A Saloon at the Edge of the World (co-authored with William Relling Jr.), a noir drama involving a clash between William Faulkner and Raymond Chandler over the screen adaptation of The Big Sleep, received a showcase production in the 1996 TAM Season of New American Plays: “Hollywood and the American Reality.”