Mark Curran is a retired professor from Arizona State University where he worked from 1968 to 2011. He taught Spanish and Portuguese and their respective cultures. His research specialty was Brazil and its "popular literature in verse" or the "Literatura de Cordel," and he has published many articles in research reviews and now some fourteen books related to the "Cordel" in Brazil, the United States and Spain. Other books done during retirement are of either an autobiographic nature – "The Farm" or "Coming of Age with the Jesuits" - or reflect classes taught at ASU on Luso-Brazilian Civilization, Latin American Civilization or Spanish Civilization. The latter are in the series "Stories I Told My Students:" books on Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Portugal and Spain. "Letters from Brazil I, II, III, IV and V" is an experiment combining reporting and fiction. "A Professor Takes to the Sea I and II" is a chronicle of a retirement adventure with Lindblad Expeditions - National Geographic Explorer. "Rural Odyssey – Living Can Be Dangerous" is "The Farm" largely made fiction. "A Rural Odyssey II – Abilene – Digging Deeper" and "Rural Odyssey III Dreams Fulfilled and Back to Abilene" are a continuation of "Rural Odyssey." "Around Brazil on the 'International Traveler' – A Fictional Panegyric" tells of an expedition in better and happier times in Brazil, but now in fiction. The author presents a continued expedition in fiction "Pre – Columbian Mexico – Plans, Pitfalls and Perils." Yet another is "Portugal and Spain on the 'International Adventurer.'" "The Collection" is a bibliography of primary and secondary works on the "Literatura de Cordel" in Curran's collection. 180 "The Master of the "Literatura de Cordel" - Leandro Gomes de Barros. A Bilingual Anthology of Selected Works" is a return to the topic of the Dissertation in 1968. "Adventure Travel" in Guatemala – The Maya Heritage" is a return to the A.T. series, the 4th preceded by books on Brazil, Mexico, Portugal and Spain. "Two By Mark J. Curran" combines two shorter narratives on the author's life, "ASU Days" and "The Guitars – A Music Odyssey." "Rural Odyssey IV – Parallels. Abilene, Cowboys and "Cordel" is cultural, historic fiction in the Rural Odyssey Series. "The Writing and Publishing Journey" is a capstone volume and catalogue of all of Curran's books to the present with color images of all the covers and short summaries of the genesis of the books. "Adventure Travel" in Colombia – Moments of Mayhem continues the Adventure Travel Series. And now, "Adventure Travel" – A New Partnership - The Royal Princess. "Rural Odyssey V" Trouble in a Kansas Riverside Town With "The Ballad of the Smoky Hill River Rambler" is the newest in the series. And in 2024 "Brazil's 'Literatura de Cordel' - The Broadside Engravings of Mexico's José Guadalupe Posada" KDP Publishing.
