avg_rating: 3.87
name: Jeffrey Overstreet
about: My name is Jeffrey Overstreet. I am a teacher and a writer, and I travel all over the place speaking about creative writing, film criticism, fantasy, faith, and the power of play. Sometimes I'm invited to teach creative writing courses and workshops. This brings me great joy.Currently I am celebrating ten years working as communications specialist at Seattle Pacific University. My dream? To someday have a full-time job teaching creative writing and film-related courses. My other dreams? They've all come true. These are my published novels, so far:Auralia's ColorsCyndere's MidnightRaven's LadderThe Ale Boy's FeastThis is my memoir of "dangerous moviegoing," published by Regal Books:Through a Screen DarklyThis is my blog: Looking Closer with My name is Jeffrey Overstreet. I am a teacher and a writer, and I travel all over the place speaking about creative writing, film criticism, fantasy, faith, and the power of play. Sometimes I'm invited to teach creative writing courses and workshops. This brings me great joy.Currently I am celebrating ten years working as communications specialist at Seattle Pacific University. My dream? To someday have a full-time job teaching creative writing and film-related courses. My other dreams? They've all come true. These are my published novels, so far:Auralia's ColorsCyndere's MidnightRaven's LadderThe Ale Boy's FeastThis is my memoir of "dangerous moviegoing," published by Regal Books:Through a Screen DarklyThis is my blog: Looking Closer with Jeffrey OverstreetThis is my Facebook page: http://facebook.com/jeffreyoverstreethqThis is my Twitter account:http://twitter.com/jeff_overstreetI grew up in Portland, Oregon. My father was a teacher there during that time, and my mother has worked as a teacher too... so I grew up in a world of educators. My younger brother Jason is some kind of singer/songwriter/composer genius. He has a singing group called Rescue that continues to amaze and bless audiences everywhere. I'm proud of that guy. My wife, Anne, comes from Roswell, New Mexico. (Insert alien-related joke here.) We just celebrated our 16th anniversary. She works as a gardener and a freelance editor, but her poetry is what really blows my mind. Read her book: Delicate Machinery Suspended. It's breathtaking. Really.I've been writing books since before I started kindergarten. I think the first one was called "The Sea Monster," and it was full of scribbled drawings of a massive, fanged beast trying to swallow a little stick-figure man. I'm not sure what that represented, or if I identified with the man or the beast.But, thanks to a whirlwind of events in 2005-06, and a few meetings that could only have happened through God's wild imagination, my first book was published: Through a Screen Darkly: Looking Closer at Beauty, Truth, and Evil in the Movies (from Regal Books). It's a book about art, faith, and the way that a good movie can change the world. It's a memoir of sorts, but also a collection of meditations on great movies, and I include some excerpts from memorable interviews with filmmakers and movie stars. I'm also a novelist. Auralia's Colors and its three sequels, Cyndere's Midnight, Raven's Ladder, and The Ale Boy's Feast, were published by WaterBook Press, a Random House imprint. What is more: I'm a contented resident of Shoreline (north end of Seattle, Washington).I'm the contributing editor of Seattle Pacific University's Response magazine.I've worked for decades as a film critic for a variety of publications including Paste, IMAGE, Christianity Today, Books and Culture, Risen and more. I'm a trouble-prone follower of Christ. I guess that'll do for starters. Any questions? ...more