Mark Eaton is a research associate professor of American literature at Claremont Graduate University. He is also a professor emeritus of English at Azusa Pacific University. He has taught at Pepperdine University and was a visiting professor of film studies at the University of Oklahoma. He has held research fellowships at Oxford University and the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, NJ.
He is the author of Religion and American Literature since 1950 (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020). He is the co-editor with Bruce Holsinger of Historical Fiction Now (Oxford UP, 2023). He is also a contributor to A Companion to Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (Wiley-Blackwell, 2023); The Routledge Handbook of Christianity and Culture (Routledge, 2025); The Routledge Companion to Literature and Religion (Routledge, 2015); Screenwriting (Rutgers UP, 2014); A Companion to Film Comedy (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012); and A Companion to the Modern American Novel, 1900-1950 (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), among other books. He has published widely on American literature and culture in journals such as American Literary History, MFS: Modern Fiction Studies, Pedagogy, and Studies in American Fiction. He is currently editor-in-chief of the journal Christianity & Literature.
Religion and American Literature since 1950. Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.
Historical Fiction Now, edited by Mark Eaton and Bruce Holsinger. Oxford University Press, 2023.
“Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, Historical Fiction, and New Novels of Slavery.” Approaches to Teaching Colson Whitehead, edited by Stephanie Li. Modern Language Association, forthcoming 2026.
“The New Novel of Slavery in the Twenty-First Century.” In A Companion to Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, edited by Gary Totten. Wiley-Blackwell, 2023.
“Christianity and Literature.” In The Routledge Handbook of Christianity and Culture, edited by Yaakov Ariel, et al. Routledge, 2025.
“Cosmic Consciousness: Henry James, William James, and the Society for Psychical Research.” In Science and Religion in Western Literature: Critical and Theological Studies, edited by Michael Fuller and Christopher Southgate. Routledge, 2022.
“Teaching Historical Fiction: Hilary Mantel and the Protestant Reformation.” In Teaching Narrative, edited by Richard Jacobs, 103-21. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
“Pathways to Terror: Teaching 9/11 Novels.” In Teaching 21st Century Genres, edited by Katy Shaw, 129-45. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
“Beyond Belief: John Updike’s Terrorist.” In 9/11: Topics in Contemporary North American Literature, edited by Catherine Morley, 105-23. Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
“9/11 and its Literary-Religious Aftermaths.” In The Routledge Companion to Literature and Religion, edited by Mark Knight, 69-79. Routledge, 2016.
“Classical Hollywood (1928-1946).” In Screenwriting: Behind the Silver Screen, edited by Andrew Horton and Julian Hoxter, 35-54. Rutgers University Press, 2014.
“Dark Comedy from Dr. Strangelove to the Dude.” In A Companion to Film Comedy, edited by Andrew Horton and Joanna E. Rapf, 315-40. Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.
Contemporary Historical Fiction
The American Novel after 1945