10-18-05
Nonfiction writer to read at Penn State Behrend
Writer Patricia Foster will visit Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, next week as part of its Creative Writers Speaker Series.
Foster will read from her works at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 27, in the worship space of the Larry and Katherine Smith Chapel. A reception will precede the reading at 4:30 p.m. in the chapel’s living room. Both events are free and open to the public.
Foster is the author of two books of nonfiction, the editor of three anthologies of nonfiction prose, and teaches English at the University of Iowa. Her latest book, Just Beneath My Skin, is a collection of autobiographic essays. Kirkus Review called the book “perceptive, thoughtful – and thought-provoking – with abundant moments of insight.” Describing Just Beneath My Skin, the American Library Association said that “although writers can feel alone and alienated, Foster seems to have found a place of redemption, where she is at home living beyond the ordinary, which, in turn, infuses her writing with its notable lyricism.”
Four essays in the collection were named Notable Essays by Robert Atwan of Best American Essays, and one, “A Second Look,” won the Mary Roberts Rinehart Award for nonfiction.
The Creative Writers Speaker Series is co-sponsored by the Clarence and Eugenie Baumann Smith Fund and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. For more information about the series, contact the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at 898-6108.