Joseph Rose

Joseph Rose (born May 6, 1969, in Wenatchee, Washington, United States) is an American journalist, priest and theologian formerly based in Portland, Oregon. He currently lives in West Hartford, Connecticut, where he is assistant rector of St. James's Episcopal Church. Rose was on the staff of The Oregonian as a writer, columnist and multimedia producer from 1999 until 2016. He has written about crime, prisons, government, Portland's world-famous bicycle scene, religion, popular culture, music, film, Oregon's methamphetamine epidemic and transportation. He is also a former freelance writer for Wired.com. As of January 2017, he described himself as retired from The Oregonian in order to go into ministry. In 2004, he wrote the newspaper's "Faces of Meth" story, which was turned into billboards and posters as well as replicated by other American media outlets, including PBS's Frontline. He has also written about the childhood and family of Portland-native Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons. Rose's articles on a Gulf War war veteran secretly living in the wilderness of Portland's Forest Park with his young daughter were the inspiration for the 2018 film "Leave No Trace." In 2008, Rose became The Oregonians chief transportation writer, with a daily blog and weekly Metro column called "Hard Drive".