Poets and Poems: Brett Foster and "Extravagant Rescues"

Brett Foster (1973-2015) was a professor of English at Wheaton College in suburban Chicago. He was a Renaissance scholar, anthology editor, and a poet. He had been Wheaton’s Poet in Residence since 2005. He was known for his work on William Shakespeare, John Donne, and Renaissance Rome. He had been a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. 

He received his B.A. degrees in English and journalism from the University of Missouri, where he met his wife. And the man was born in Kansas. You have to be a native of Missouri or Kansas to know just how contrary it is for a Kansan to attend a college in Missouri, and vice versa. The enmity is a legacy of the pre-Civil War “bleeding Kansas” battles over slavey. He did receive his masters in English from Boston University and his Ph.D. from Yale.

 

At the time of his death, he had published one full poetry collection, The Garbage Eater (2011) and a chapbook, Fall Run Road (2011). He was working on a new collection, Extravagant Rescues, at the time of his death. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Thursday Readings 

 

Joy of My Youth – poem by Paul Mariani at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

“Winter Snow,” poem by Mark van Doren – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern. 

 

“Christmas,” poem by George Herbert – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

“Frost,” poem by Hannah Flagg Gould – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Five Poems in Honor of Thomas McGrath – Jared Carter at New Verse Review.