Born in Libby, Montana, Mark Osteen received his BA and MA degrees from the University of Montana, before moving to Atlanta in 1982. There he received a PhD in English literature from Emory University, working with eminent James Joyce scholar Richard Ellmann. Since 1988 he has taught at Loyola University Maryland, where he is Professor of English and Director of Film Studies. Osteen has written or edited eight books, including The Economy of Ulysses (winner of the 1995 Donald Murphy for best first book in Irish Studies), American Magic and Dread: Don DeLillo's Dialogue with Culture, and essay collections on economic literary criticism and gift theory. In 2008 he published another edited collection, Autism and Representation, and he is currently at work on a study entitled The Big Night: Film Noir and American Dreams.
If writing and teaching are his vocations, music is his avocation: Osteen has been a professional musician since the mid-'70s. After switching from rock to jazz in the early '90s, he has been an important contributor to the Baltimore scene, not only as a saxophonist and singer but also as president of the non-profit Baltimore Jazz Alliance. He produced two BJA compilation CDs, Baltimore Jazzscapes and Baltimore Jazzscapes II, and recently produced and performed on Urban Pastoral, the second release by his own group, Cold Spring Jazz Quartet. In 2010 he published Music at the Crossroads: Lives and Legacies of Baltimore Jazz, a book he co-edited with eight of his Loyola students.
Osteen has been married since 1981 to Leslie Gilden, his indispensable partner in all aspects of life. Their son Cameron, born in 1989, is the subject of One of Us: A Family's Life with Autism.
For further information, please visit the author's website: http://www.loyola.edu/fas/mosteen.
