Twin Peaks (It had its highs and lows, but its highs were the best television I've ever seen, even surpassing many great films.)
The Office (A half hour a week packed with better laughs and more heart than the rest of television's weekly sitcoms combined.)
Firefly (Loved it. Its cancellation was a dark, dark day for humankind.)
SportsNight (Loved it. Its cancellation was a dark, dark day for humankind.)
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (A pale flicker of the glory that was SportsNight, but it will have to suffice.)
Lost (It has its highs and lows... more lows, recently. I'm hanging on by my fingernails. If things don't start showing signs of real progress soon, I'll give up. Too many new mysteries and questions, not enough substantial storytelling.)
Books
The Bible
Orthodoxy (G.K. Chesterton)
The Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)
Watership Down (Richard Adams)
For the Time Being, and anything else by Annie Dillard
The poetry of Scott Cairns
Poetry by Anne M. Doe Overstreet (Love it so much, I married her.)
The Sign of Jonas, and anything else by Thomas Merton
What's So Amazing About Grace? (Phillip Yancey)
The Once and Future King (T.H. White)
The Gormenghast Novels (Mervyn Peake)
Winter's Tale, A Soldier of the Great War, and anything else by Mark Helprin
Silence (Shazuko Endo)
Never Let Me Go, The Remains of the Day, and anything else by Kazuo Ishiguro
Walking on Water (Madeleine L'Engle)
Poetry by Jane Hirschfield
Novels by Patricia McKillip, especially The Book of Atrix Wolf
Heroes
Jesus Christ
Thomas Merton
J.R.R. Tolkien
Sam Phillips (not the guy who produced Johnny Cash, but the singer/songwriter who recorded the albums "The Turning," "Martinis and Bikinis," "Fan Dance," and "A Boot and a Shoe")
Seattle Pacific University
Seattle, WA
Graduated: 1994
Student status: Alumni
Degree: High School Diploma
Major: English literature / Creative Writing
Clubs: Member of popular party band The Garbage Chute Flyboys; co-founded The Thomas Parker Society, a gathering for anyone who loves to read out loud.
1989 to 1994
Portland Christian
Portland, OR
Graduated: 1989
Student status: Alumni
Degree: High School Diploma
Clubs: Student Body President, Valedictorian, Host of "Late Night with Portland Christian"
I am the author of "Auralia's Colors," the first book in a series called "The Auralia Thread," coming from Random House (WaterBrook Press) in September 2007.
I am the author of "Through a Screen Darkly," a work that fuses memoir, film reviews, interviews, and commentary on the intersection of art, culture, and faith.
Okay... time to trivialize my existence, scratch the surface, and boil myself down to a few details...
My name is Jeffrey Overstreet. God has conspired to turn me into a writer, a grateful husband, a contented resident of Shoreline (north end of Seattle, Washington), and a trouble-prone follower of Christ. The joy I know is all due to God's grace, and the opportunities I enjoy leave me humbled, grateful, and rather burdened with a sense of responsibility.
I grew up in Portland, Oregon, and attended Portland Christian Schools from K-12. 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 wherever God leads them. I'm proud of that guy.
I'm married to a poet named Anne, who comes from Roswell, New Mexico. (Insert alien-related joke here.) We just celebrated our 10th anniverary. She works as a gardener and a freelance editor, but her poetry is what really blows my mind. Well, that and the fact that I can't believe a gorgeous woman like her decided to spend her life with a crazy guy like me.
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, I'm now the author of Through a Screen Darkly: Looking Closer at Beauty, Truth, and Evil in the Movies (coming from Regal Books in January 2007). 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, and my first novel, Auralia's Colors, is being published by Random House in Sept. 07.
Since my early teen years, when I became a fan of Roger Ebert, I've been writing about all of the movies I see and the music I hear. My film and music reviews are located at LookingCloser.org, and I'm also:
G.K. Chesterton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Thomas Merton, Flannery O'Connor, and C.S. Lewis (If they'd come back from the dead for a bit. Their writing has changed my life.)
Over the Rhine. (Oh, wait, I *have* had a few dinners with them! But I'd like to do that again.)
Terrence Malick. (Got a nice phone call from his dad thanking me for my review of The New World. Wow. That was a nice surprise, Lord.)
T-Bone Burnett. (Had breakfast with him in 1992. Time to catch up.)
Joe Henry.
Peter Gabriel.
Philip Yancey. (Go read What's So Amazing About Grace? right now. Really. Go. You'll thank me.)
Annie Dillard. (For the Time Being is another book you should start reading today.)
Bono. (For obvious reasons.)
Don and Karen Peris of The Innocence Mission.
Roger Ebert.
Bruce Cockburn.
Mark Helprin. (Favorite living novelist.)
Eddie Izzard. (Favorite comedian.)
Daniel Day-Lewis and Juliette Binoche. (Favorite actors.)
Writing interviews for various publications, I have had the pleasure of meeting and talking with:
Over the Rhine,
T-Bone Burnett,
Sam Phillips,
Wim Wenders,
the cast and crew of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings,
the cast of TV's Firefly and the film Serenity,
Charlie Kaufmann,
Michel Gondry,
Nicolas Cage,
Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu,
Darren Aronofsky,
Steve Buscemi,
Danny Devito,
Kevin Smith,
Alison Lohmann,
Rachel Weisz,
Djimon Honsou,
Keanu Reeves and the cast and filmmakers of Constantine,
Your new name came to me in a vision... Gentle Bear Jeff, the Gentle Bear. You were walking towards me and you told me you wanted to be called, "Gentle Bear Jeff, the Gentle Bear". That was my vision. : )
Hi Jeffrey--just wanted to let you know that I finally picked up Through a Screen Darkly and am enjoying it. I am co-teaching a film class in the fall at Roberts (focusing on novel adaptations), and will definitely look to use at least parts of your book...thanks--hope you're well--
My son and his fiancée were telling me the other day about you and your books and your ideas. They were very enthusiastic. I thought it was pretty funny, and kind of neat. (Funny because I already knew. )
It is I! I didn't know how well your memory still served you! ;) I am well....we live in Moses Lake now! Life is an adventure. I want to read your book...how exciting for you. Congrats. You had success written all over you even way back when we tumbled through Europe! Keep in touch!
I've got two WordPress log-ins established for other sites. Neither of them will work on yours. (They might be site-specific, I don't know.) I tried setting up a new one, but it doesn't want to let me play. Is there any way of setting it up that it doesn't require a log-in to comment?
BTW, I love the quote at the top of the page about faith and art dazzling slowly. That is so true. I think where Christian artists often fall down is that they try to dazzle quickly. Novels turn into sermons. Which kills them dead.
WordPress hates me. I am beginning to return the favour. No matter how I try to log in at your blogs, it won't let me. Wrong password, wrong name... I use identities already established, try to set up new ones, nothing works. Which annoys me because I would kind of like to get a dialogue going sometimes.
You could always switch to Blogger, she said hopefully...
Not to fear. I shall harass you properly once I've a) received the book and b) read it. There is not usually much gap between a) and b) although there are a couple of other books in the order.
Online Now!
