Joshua McGuire is the author of a wide-ranging body of work for the opera stage, including The Ghosts of Gatsby and the holiday staple Lucinda y Las Flores de la Nochebuena (with music by Evan Mack). Described as “bittersweet and appealing” (The Washington Post), his librettos have been performed and commissioned by companies including Opera Saratoga, San Francisco Opera, Boulder Opera, Opera Las Vegas, Mobile Opera, Virginia Opera, Opera in the Heights, Opera Birmingham, and Washington National Opera, as well as a wide range of colleges and universities. Current projects include a multimedia adaptation of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha with music by Murray Hidary, and A Nearer Mother, a drama drawn from the life of pioneering AIDS activist Ruth Coker Burks.

McGuire is the recipient of prizes and fellowships from Opera America, the American Opera Initiative, the National Opera Association, the American Center for New Works Development, and Yaddo. He also serves on the Opera Committee of the Dramatists Guild of America. McGuire is the author of The Secret of Music: a look at the listening life (Shanti Arts Press, 2019), a collection of essays on music and mindfulness. His poetry has appeared in journals including Levee Magazine and The Manhattan Review.

He currently serves on the faculty of Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, where he teaches courses in Aural Skills, Meditation for Musicians, and chairs the school’s Career Preparedness & Community Outreach program. He lives in Nashville with his wife, pianist and conductor Jennifer McGuire, and their son Thomas.