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Rajiv Joseph is an American playwright and a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Joseph was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio; his mother is Euroamerican of French and German ancestry and his father is of Indian ancestry and immigrated to the States from India. He attended Cleveland Heights High School and graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1996 with a B.A. in Creative Writing. While at Miami he was a member of the university's Men's Glee Club and its premier male a cappella group, the Cheezies. Joseph also competed for the highly decorated Miami University Individual Events team.
Following graduation Joseph joined the Peace Corps, serving three formative years in the West African Republic of Senegal, including two years in Koular and the third in Kaolack. Joseph has stated about his time there: "Being in Senegal, more than anything else in my life, made me into a writer." His time in Senegal helped him develop the discipline of daily writing and inspired his "fascination with the power of language"; as he has stated: "It felt a little like being a child again, because your language skills are on the level of a 4-year-old, so the adults kind of ignore you, but the children cluster around you telling you what everything is called".
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