OSTLING, Joan K.

PERSONAL:

Married Richard N. Ostling (an author); children: two. Education: University of California at Santa Cruz, B.A. (theater), 1979; University of Southern California, M.F.A., 1981; Greenwich University, Ph.D. (professional writing), 1993.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Ridgewood, NJ. Agent—c/o Author Mail, HarperCollins, 7th Floor, 10 East 53rd St., New York, NY 10022.

CAREER:

U.S. Information Agency, Washington, DC, former writer and editor; Press Publications (newspaper chain), Chicago, IL, former reporter; Nyack College, teacher of English and journalism.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Joe R. Christopher) C. S. Lewis: An Annotated Checklist of Writings about Him and His Works, Kent State University Press (Kent, OH), 1974.

(With husband, Richard N. Ostling) Mormon America: The Power and the Promise, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 1999.

SIDELIGHTS:

After honing her writing skills at the U.S. Information Agency and the Press Publications newspaper chain, Joan K. Ostling became a freelance writer and editor for various magazines and other publications. With Joe R. Christopher, she edited C. S. Lewis: An Annotated Checklist of Writings about Him and His Works, a sourcebook for scholars of the famed religious writer and novelist. In 1999, she teamed up with her husband, longtime Time magazine religion writer Richard Ostling, to explore a more controversial subject in Mormon America: The Power and the Promise.

With Mormon America the Ostlings describe the transformation of the small, detested new faith founded by Joseph Smith in the 1840s to the wealthy, eminently respectable, rapidly growing religion it is today. At the same time, they discuss polygamy, racist teachings—only in 1978 were blacks allowed full participation in the religion—and other controversial doctrines that have marginalized Mormons at various times in their history. "The Ostlings have presented, in a very appealing, accessibly way, massive amounts of information. And as they promised, Mormon America isn't a polemic. Still, both insiders and outsiders will feel uneasy after reading it," concluded Christian Science Monitor reviewer Linda L. Giedl. For Los Angeles Times Book Review critic Kenneth Anderson "it is a scrupulous, fair-minded account, one that neither shies away from the controversies that have shaped the perception of Mormonism nor has any particular ax to grind about them."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Christianity Today, March 6, 2000, Richard J. Mouw, "Mormon Makeover."

Christian Science Monitor, December 23, 1999, Linda L. Giedl, review of Mormon America: The Power and the Promise.

Library Journal, November 1, 1999, David S. Azzolina, review of Mormon America, p. 90.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, November 28, 1999, Kenneth Anderson, review of Mormon America, p. 1.

New York Times Book Review, January 9, 2000, Timothy Egan, "Theocracy in the Desert."

Publishers Weekly, July 12, 1999, "An Appetite for Home-Grown Religion," p. 54; August 30, 1999, Michael Kress, "Richard & Joan Ostling."; October 11, 1999, Jana Riess, "Forecasts: Religion."

Times Literary Supplement, May 26, 2000, Patrick Allitt, "Chariots of Fire."*