Karen Lee Osborne has taught at Columbia College since 1987, and was named Teacher of the Year for 1996. She earned her Ph.D. in English from the University of Denver. She enjoys teaching courses ranging from first-year writing through graduate literature seminars, and has developed many additions to the curriculum. 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 co-edited, with William Spurlin, Reclaiming the Heartland: Lesbian and Gay Voices from the Midwest (University 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 has conducted writing workshops for a number of organizations and is at work on a third novel, portions of which have been published. Her essays, articles, fiction, creative nonfiction, and reviews have appeared in numerous journals and collections, and she has presented many papers at conferences such as the Modern Language Association (MLA) convention. During 1985-86 she was a Fulbright lecturer in American Literature in the Republic of Georgia.