Stephen Curley received a B.A. in English from Fordham University in New York and a Ph.D. in English from Rice University in Houston. Since 1973, he has taught writing, literature, and film at Texas A&M University at Galveston. He received the two highest awards given by the Galveston campus, one for teaching, the other for overall achievement. He is also the first person from the Galveston campus to have won the highest teaching award given by the College Station campus, and the first to be named Regents Professor by the Texas A&M University System. His books include Aggies by the Sea; Living on the Edge: Collected Essays on Coastal Texas; Celluloid Wars: A Research Guide to American War Film; and Invisible Texans: Women and Minorities in Texas History. He has been the recipient of numerous grants for public programs in Galveston on such subjects as the Texas coast, the U.S. Bill of Rights, popular culture, the American Civil War, and the Great Depression. He has released an audiocassette of sea chanteys and often is invited to make presentations about movies and sea-related topics.