Joshua Casteel first enlisted in the US Army Reserves at the age of 17, received an appointment to the US Military Academy at West Point at 18, but at 25 was honorably discharged from Active Duty as a conscientious objector. During his time in service, Joshua studied Philosophy and Literature at the University of Iowa and Keble College, Oxford. Less than 30 days after receiving his B.A., Joshua was called up from the Reserves to full Active Duty in the US Army. He trained first as an interrogator at Fort Huachuca, AZ and then spent one and a half years at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA studying Arabic. From June 2004 to January 2005, Joshua served at the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center at Abu Ghraib, Iraq as a member of the interrogation units sent to overhaul the prison after the abuse scandal had become public.

Shortly after discharge from service, Joshua began writing and speaking widely in the US about his wartime experiences, serving on the board of directors of Iraq Veterans Against the War and chairing IVAW’s Religious Dialogue committee. Joshua is currently a dual-MFA candidate at the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop and the Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program, where he teaches Theatre History and Rhetoric. Joshua is also currently a student of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. In addition to two plays ("Returns: A Meditation in Post-trauma" and "Ishmael and Isa") which chronicle his experiences in Iraq, Joshua is also writing a memoir entitled "The Book of Joshua" which narrates his eight years spent in the US Army and eventual conversion from nationalist Evangelical Christianity to Catholic pacifism.