Karen Lee Osborne

First Year Writing, Literature

Karen Lee Osborne has taught literature and composition at Columbia College since 1987 and was named Teacher of the Year for 1996. Among the courses she teaches are Composition I and II, Introduction to Literature/Drama/Short Story, American Authors, Modern American Drama, Southern Women Writers, Native American Literature, Gay and Lesbian Literature, and seminars on Emily Dickinson and Virginia Woolf.

Karen's novels include Carlyle Simpson (Academy Chicago, 1986), winner of the Friends of American Writers Award and the Chicago Foundation for Literature Award, and Hawkwings (Third Side Press, 1991). She edited The Country of Herself: Short Fiction by Chicago Women (Third Side, 1993), and coedited, with William Spurlin, Reclaiming the Heartland: Lesbian and Gay Voices from the Midwest (Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1996). Her chapbook Survival was published in 1998. Her story "Getting What You Came for" was the basis for A Common Flower, a 1992 film by Doreen Bartoni (Film/video department) that has been screened at film festivals in the U.S. and abroad. Karen also has conducted writing workshops for River Oak Arts and other organizations.

 Her essays, articles, fiction, creative nonfiction and reviews have appeared in journals such as American Book Review, North American Review, The Denver Quarterly, St. Petersburg Times, Sojourner, and Women's Review of Books, and she has presented many papers at conferences such as the Modern Language Association (MLA) convention, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), MELUS, the Conference on Film and Literature, the 20th Century Literature Conference, and regional conferences such as M/MLA and NEMLA. Her chapter on Carole Maso's AVA, "The Blessed Syncope of Supreme Moments": The Music of Time in AVA"  is available in an online casebook published by Dalkey Archive Press. 

She coordinated the Introduction to Literature program from 1997 until spring 2000, and created an extensive website for the program, highlighting the creative work of many students. She also created the English Department website in 1998 and maintains many of its directories and pages. She received a Technology Fellowship in 2000 to develop web enhancements for her Virginia Woolf seminar. During fall of 2003, she served as Co-Acting Chair of the department, with Suzanne Blum Malley. She also served as Acting Graduate Coordinator during 2002-2003.

After receiving her bachelor's degree from the University of Florida and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Denver, she taught at Stetson University and was resident fiction writer at Illinois Wesleyan University. During 1985-86 she was a Fulbright lecturer in the Republic of Georgia.

Karen now uses Oasis as the primary online enhancement tool for her classes, but also posts some materials for students on her website at work.colum.edu/~kosborne/classes.html

Office Location: English Department, 300-Y, 3rd floor, 33 E. Congress 

Office Phone: 312-369-8123 

Email: kosborne@colum.edu

Mailing Address: 
Karen Lee Osborne 
Department of English 
Columbia College of Chicago 
600 So. Michigan Avenue 
Chicago, IL 60605-1996