Whalen graduated from the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville) in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts in English, and earned a Master of Arts He attended Tulane University in 1974 and the University of California, Berkeley, in 1981. In 2008 he received a Doctor of Philosophy in American Literature from Freiburg University, Germany where he was a Visiting Professor in North American Studies.
In Writing from Hollins College (Virginia) in 1971. Whalen also was a Visiting Professor in American Film and Literature 2006-2009 at the University of Stuttgart. In 2008, he taught a film class at the Staatliche Akademie der Künste Stuttgart.
Caketrain Chapbook Competition, 2006. Texas Review Press Novella Award, 1996. The Missouri Review Editor"s Prize (Essay), 1993. Distinguished Teacher, Presidential Scholars Commission, 1984, 1994. Pro Helvetia (Switzerland) Research Grants Summer 1988 and Summer 1990. Louisiana Artist Fellowship in Literature, 1985. New Orleans Public Schools Teacher of the Year, 1984. National Endowment for the Humanities Grant, State University of New York-Buffalo, Summer 1984. Outstanding Arts Teacher, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, 1984. McNeese State University Research Grant, 1976. Hollins College Fellowship, 1970-1971.
