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Joshua Plague (real name Joshua Ploeg) is an influential American musician and zine editor.

Joshua was the singer for the queercore/hardcore bands Mukilteo Fairies; Behead the Prophet, No Lord Shall Live; Lords of Lightspeed; and The Special Friend, spanning a period from 1993-2001, Since then he has played drums for the band Kiss Me Kill Me and engaged in spoken word and various noise and vocal projects.

He began calling himself 'Plague' as a play on mispronunciations of his last name, Ploeg, and it stuck throughout his career with different bands. All the groups he sang for were noted for DIY ethics, releasing their recordings on independent record labels such as Outpunk, K Records and Kill Rock Stars, booking their own tours and frequently playing all-ages shows. Also notable were Plague's intense, often confrontational lyrics about being queer, in songs such as "Closet Check" and "Queer Enough For You?". When singing for his various bands, Plague was noted for screechy vocals, which resulted in these bands being highly regarded by later 'Screamo' aficionados. While popular in their day, appreciation for each of Plague's bands has increased since they initially released their records, and their influence grown.

In 2004, the hardcore band Limp Wrist released the song "Ode" on their Complete Discography CD, a tribute to Plague, as well as Gary Floyd of The Dicks and Randy Turner of Big Boys, for being the pioneering queer hardcore musicians who had paved the way for groups such as Limp Wrist.

Since striking out on his own, he has appeared as a guest on the Hoodwinked CD Stab Stab Stab and has performed, sometimes with ex-bandmate violinist Michael Griffin, at events such as Bands Against Bush and Homo-a-go-go. Most recently he has performed under his own name or as "Joshua Plague's Sanctuary Of Sound", also known as Sanctuary Sounds and has recorded several releases including Hymns & Conjurations, which includes some songs sung in Latin. His song "Take My Airs" was covered by the band Western Graves.

Plague is the editor and writer of over 30 different zines, the best known being the Now I.. series, including Now I Write A Dic-tion-ar-y, Now I Devour You, and Now I Don the Mask of Melancholy. Another more recent title is More Garbage On Paper. In 2006 he issued the compilation zine Archivision (#1)/Now Let's Put On a Show (#6), subtitled A Torrid Tale of Collected Art, Tales and Recitations.

Today, Joshua is principally a gourmet vegan chef who tours with his travelling dinner parties and creates new cookbooks that he sells. He continues to operate on the same spirit of DIY ethics that has always propelled him. He is working on a new cookbook to be published by Microcosm.

• Joshua Plague onstage with Behead The Prophet No Lord Shall Live

• List of queercore bands