Josh Garrett-Davis was born and raised in South Dakota. He has written songs since he was eight or nine, and played bass guitar in unknown rock and roll bands since he was fourteen. (See some links on the Music page.) In his early twenties, he began thinking about ways to update and explore the history, politics, and mythology of his home region, the Plains. After writing several folk-rock songs in that vein, he began researching and writing a long prose ballad, Ghost Dances: Proving Up on the Great Plains. It is his first book.

A glutton for syllabi, he has now returned to graduate school at Princeton, where he is studying American history. He will continue to learn about the American West, American Indian histories, and American cultural history; he expects to finish his PhD in 2046. (Previously, he attended Theodore F. Riggs High School; Amherst College; and Columbia University's School of the Arts, where he got an MFA in nonfiction writing. He took non-degree-granting courses at Rock N' Roll High School and Punk Rock Academy.) He lives in Philadelphia with his sweetheart, Marina Libel.

If you would like to contact Josh, his school email is on this page. 

(Photo by Joshua Simpson)

• An essay in the Iowa Review online about Leslie Marmon Silko's memoir, The Turquoise Ledge.

• A Brooklyn Rail review of the Brooklyn Museum show Tipi: Heritage of the Great Plains.

• A review (in the Faster Times) of Luc Sante’s Folk Photography: The American Real-Photo Postcard, 1905–1930.

• An essay on Joan Didion's The White Album (also in the Faster Times).

• A blog post at Lapham's Quarterly about Mormonism.

• An essay on the Rumpus about Wells Tower and his old punk band, Hellbender.

• An essay on Killing the Buddha about Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church (adapted from Ghost Dances).

• An interview with Sara Marcus about her book Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution.

• An article about the band Calexico, in High Country News.

• An article about prairie and grassland conservation, also in High Country News.

• A review of Antonino D'Ambrosio's book A Heartbeat and a Guitar: Johnny Cash and the Making of Bitter Tears.

• An essay, in High Country News, about Western Mura in Imaichi, Japan.

• There's also a long historical article about a 1970s "Red Power" action, not available online but published in this book.