Lee to Host Poet Foster and 10th Annual Literary Symposium
By: Christian Downes
Lee University will host an introduction to its annual spring
Writer’s Festival with a reading by poet and Renaissance scholar
Brett Foster, associate professor of English at Wheaton College.
Foster will speak the following day during Lee’s
10th annual Sigma Tau Delta Literary Symposium.
On Friday, Nov. 9, Foster will read from his first book of
poetry, The Garbage Eater, at 7 p.m. in the Edna
Minor Conn Theatre. Foster, who teaches creative writing and
Renaissance literature at Wheaton College, will sign copies of his
book following the reading.
The Garbage Eater was published in 2011
(Triquarterly Books/Northwestern University Press) and was featured
in Poets & Writers and on Poetry Daily. A second collection,
Fall Run Road, was awarded Finishing Line Press’s 2011
chapbook prize and will be published later this year. Foster’s
literary works have appeared in numerous journals including The
Georgia Review, Harvard Review, IMAGE,
Kenyon Review, Measure, and Spoon River
Poetry Review.
“We’re thrilled to have Brett Foster come and speak in a variety
of venues,” said Lee’s Professor of English Dr. Kevin Brown. “He is
both a critical and a creative writer, and his Christian faith
informs both of those endeavors. He will be yet another role model
for our students.”
Lee’s chapter of the international English honor society, Sigma
Tau Delta, will present its 10th annual Literary
Symposium at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 10 in the Humanities Center.
Students from Lee and five other Tennessee colleges and
universities will present their critical and creative works.
“We are very excited to celebrate the
10th anniversary of our symposium with our
first-ever plenary speaker, Brett Foster, an experienced poet and
critical scholar,” said Lee’s Assistant Professor of English Dr.
Chad Schrock. “We are also pleased to welcome presenters and
attendees from various schools in the state.”
As a Renaissance scholar, Foster’s articles and reviews on
Marlowe, Shakespeare, Milton, and other authors have appeared in
essay collections and in journals including the Journal of
British Studies, Literary Imagination, Religion
& Literature, Renaissance Quarterly, and
Shakespeare Bulletin. He is currently working on a study
of English writings on Renaissance Rome, and a collection and
commentary of Renaissance love poetry.
Foster’s poetry reading is free and the public is welcome and
encouraged to attend. Registration for Lee’s Literary
Symposium is $7 which includes breakfast and lunch.
The Edna Minor Conn Theatre is located on the third floor of the
Vest Building.
The Humanities Center is located on 1250 Parker St NE.
For more information about the symposium, please contact Dr.
Schrock at [email protected].
PHOTO: (Foster)
