Joseph Torra is the author of numerous novels and books of poetry. Titles include Gas Station, Tony Luongo, My Ground, The Bystander's Scrapbook, After the Chinese, Call Me Waiter and What's So Funny. He published lift magazine in the early 1990s, and served on the editorial board at Pressed Wafer Press. He lives in Somerville, MA with his wife and daughters. Besides What It Takes, he has also published the books They Say and Time Being, and a prose poetry collection, Watteau Sky, with Quale Press.