Joseph Kertes was born in Hun­gary but escaped with his fam­i­ly to Cana­da after the rev­o­lu­tion of 1956. He stud­ied Eng­lish at York Uni­ver­si­ty and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to. His nov­el Grat­i­tude won the Nation­al Jew­ish Book Award for fic­tion. Kertes found­ed Hum­ber Col­lege’s dis­tin­guished cre­ative writ­ing and com­e­dy pro­grams. He is cur­rent­ly Hum­ber’s dean of cre­ative and per­form­ing arts.