Joe Manning is a freelance journalist, poet, photographer, composer, lyricist and artist. His book, Steeples: Sketches of North Adams (Flatiron Press 1997), is in its third printing. It has been required reading for several courses at Williams College and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. He followed that with Disappearing Into North Adams (Flatiron Press 2001). His most recent book is Gig At The Amtrak (Flatiron Press 2005), a collection of his poetry.

In June 2002, Manning contributed a lengthy essay about the social history of the River Street neighborhood in North Adams for Porches: Art and Renewal on River Street, a book edited by the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. His poetry has been published frequently in The Berkshire Review. He has written many newspaper and magazine articles, ranging from travel essays to social commentary.

Manning created and is the advisor for several oral history programs in the North Adams public schools, for which he obtained a grant. Since 1998, he has helped plan and run Neighborhood EXPO, an all-day interactive celebration of North Adams neighborhoods and history sponsored by the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition. He is a frequent lecturer about North Adams history for Elderhostel programs at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

With collaborator Steve Vozzolo, he wrote and produced I Love Baseball, an album of new songs about the game. It is included in the collection of baseball music at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Their song about painter Norman Rockwell, "Norman Always Knew," was recorded by Arlo Guthrie and performed by Mr. Guthrie at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Manning was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in southern Maryland. He served four years in the United States Air Force as a medical corpsman. In 1970, he received a BA in Sociology from the State University of New York College at Cortland. He was a caseworker for the Connecticut Department of Social Services from 1970, until his retirement in 1999. Manning and his wife live in Florence, Massachusetts.