Edwin Frank Casebeer was born in 1933 in Boise, Idaho to a newspaper advertising man and housewife who raised him as an only child until the displacements of World War II led to their divorce. Ed was sent to board with a family he had never met, his experiences reflected in a fictionalized account of the end of the war in 1945 in The Canary Room. 

 

A teacher of literature, Ed's career began early when he lined up the neighborhood boys on the front porch and taught them Bible stories, the only book at hand. His passion for literature led to degrees from Whitman College, the University of Montana, and a doctorate from the University of Washington followed by a career teaching literature and writing at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI). During the 1950's, his graduate studies were interrupted by the draft for two years when he served as an army personnel specialist and taught in off hours at the University of Georgia.

 

For over thirty years at IUPUI as a professor, director of the writing program, and department chair he inspired students with his approaches to  fiction, drama and poetry ranging from Shakespeare to popular culture. His publications include critical approaches to Hermann Hesse, Peter Straub, and Stephen King, among others. A year's sabbatical was spent living and writing in Munich, Germany.

 

Known by many as a Renaissance man, Ed is a singer, an artist, a poet, a novelist. He has acted, directed, and produced plays as well as serving as a drama critic and a dramaturg. 

 

While his son John, and his four step daughters would say that he met his wife, Linda, at a bar, it was the weekly poetry reading in the back of the bar, The Alleycat, that brought them together in 1984.  They continue to find their common interests centered in writing and painting.

 

Ed lives and works in Birmingham, Alabama and Lake Manitou/Rochester, Indiana. 

Meditation has been central to his life since the 1970's and is a daily practice. Currently he is interested in serialized fiction and serves as Editor in Chief of serialities.com, an interactive web fiction site where readers vote on what happens to the characters. He and his wife are working on a second novel.