About the Author

Joel is the author of joel2.com, a Register of Works that has been described by critics as "a website," and by his mother as "very clever, but what is it for." He was born in Rotherham in 1987, or possibly 1986 — the records differ, and Joel has not corrected them, because the uncertainty has begun to feel like a feature of the work.

He read English Literature at the University of Sheffield, where his dissertation — "Unexpected Items in the Bagging Area: Toward a Poetics of the Self-Checkout" — was returned with a note from his supervisor that read, in full, "I have read it. I wish I hadn't." It is Joel's most cited work.

Following a brief career in digital media during which he attended approximately four thousand meetings that could have been emails, Joel became freelance. The circumstances of his departure from permanent employment are not discussed, at the request of his former employer's legal team, who have asked that the phrase "the biscuit incident" not be repeated. Joel respects this request in public and disregards it at every other opportunity.

In 2024, he applied to host a wildebeest through a government urban wildlife relocation scheme. The application was declined on the grounds that his garden was not of sufficient size and that his description of it as "spiritually adequate for a medium-to-large ungulate" was, in the caseworker's words, "not an answer to any question I am authorised to ask." He has not re-applied. He has replanted the garden. He maintains the two events are unrelated.

Joel lives in the north of England with no animals, a houseplant of contested viability, and a strong position on font licensing. He does not accept unsolicited correspondence. He once had a contact form. It received four messages: three from a man asking if Joel owed him money (he did not, but the specificity was noted), and one photograph of a swan with no accompanying text. The form has not been reinstated.

joel2.com is his only website. He intends it to remain so.