Foster Dickson: Recent Events in 2009-2010
Foster Dickson is a writer, editor, and teacher in Montgomery, Alabama. He is the author of three books: Kindling Not Yet Split (Court Street Press, 2002), I Just Make People Up: Ramblings with Clark Walker (NewSouth Books, 2009), and The Life and Poetry of John Beecher (Edwin Mellen Press, 2009), and the general editor of Treasuring Alabama's Black Belt (AUM/AHF, 2009).
RECENT BOOKS BY FOSTER DICKSON!
LEFT: The Life and Poetry of John Beecher (1904-1980): Advocate of Poetry as a Spoken Art
a scholarly work published in August 2009 by Edwin Mellen Press
RIGHT: Treasuring Alabama's Black Belt: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Teaching Place
a curriculum guide published in September 2009 by AHF, AUM, and Auburn Outreach
OLD NEWS (From 2009 and 2010):
Foster was an invited participant in the "Futures Conference" for the Long Term High School Facility Options plan for Montgomery Public Schools. The all-day meeting was held on September 21, 2010 at Trenholm State Technical College in Montgomery.
Foster was interviewed on August 21 by Rob Gray of the University of South Alabama for a forthcoming documentary that Gray is doing about race relations in Alabama.
Foster was a guest speaker at the June 22nd meeting of One Montgomery.
Foster Dickson was named OUTSTANDING SECONDARY TEACHER OF THE YEAR by the Alabama PTA at their state conference in Huntsville on April 17, 2010.
Foster's review of E. Ethelbert Miller's new memoir, The 5th Inning, appears in the Spring 2010 issue of MultiCultural Review.
Foster's book, The Life and Poetry of John Beecher, was listed in the Alabama Writers Forum's Book Reviews section as a Book Noted in April.
Foster traveled to Huntsville on April 17-18 for the last trip in the Patchwork project. He interviewed Wyatt Akin about his Skate Alabama project.
Foster was involved in a panel discussion on the work of John Beecher at the 2010 Alabama Book Festival on April 17, 2010 during the 10:00-10:30 time slot. NewSouth Books editor-in-chief Randall Williams also discussed publishing Beecher's posthumous poetry collection, One More River to Cross.
Foster led the Creative Writing Workshop session at the second annual Auburn University at Montgomery Liberal Arts Conference (AUMLAC) on Friday, March 26, 2010.
Foster's edited collection of memoirs on growing up on the post-Civil Rights era South was contracted by McFarland & Co., Publishers in March 2010. The book's release date has not yet been set.
On March 19, Foster traveled to southeastern Alabama - the "Wiregrass" - to interview Bill Perkins, the editorial page editor for the Dothan Eagle newspaper, for the Patchwork project.
Foster's handprints were included in a permanent art exhibit called "Hands Uplifted for Freedom and Justice" at Troy University's Rosa Parks Library and Museum. The exhibit's opened on March 4, 2010, and it features bronzed handprints of 54 civil rights activists and social justice workers.
On Sunday, February 28, Foster interviewed Scott Peek of Standard Deluxe in Waverly, and he was a guest of Rivers Langley on "The Dr. Rock and Captain Fantasy Show" on WEGL, Auburn's student radio station.
Foster was among a group of teachers who conducted an professional development on using Treasuring Alabama's Black Belt on February 20, 2010 at Black Belt Treasures in Camden. Foster presented alongside Nancy Anderson (AUM, lead scholar and editor), Sharon Andress (Morgan Academy), and Carol Mays who teaches in Mobile. For a PDF flyer about the event, click here.
Foster continued travels and his interviews and research for the "Patchwork" project, with travels in Alabama to the Tuscaloosa area on January 30 and 31. He interviewed letterpress printer Amos Kennedy, U of A grad student Elliot Knight, filmmaker Andrew Grace and David Snow and Margaret Ann Toohey of Snows Bend Farm.
Foster's article, "Bringing Poetry Back Home," was published in MultiCultural Review in the Winter 2009 issue, which came out in December 2009. The article provides suggestions for different approaches to teaching modern poetry to working-class and lower-income high school students.
Foster and Clark Walker signed copies of I Just Make People Up at Montgomery's Gallery East, located in the Shoppes at Eastchase, on the evening of Thursday, November 19, from 5:30 - 7:30 pm.
Foster was the chairperson for the Creative Nonfiction panel at the SAMLA conference in November 2009 in Atlanta. The 2009 conference's focus is "Human Rights and the Humanities." Last year, Foster was on that panel (at the 2008 conference in Louisville) and read his own essay, "The Humane Reformation."
Foster was a featured author and guest of CBC journalist Adrian Harewood at the Ottawa International Writers Festival on Sunday, October 25 at 4 pm. On Monday and Tuesday, October 26 and 27, Foster conducted seminars and discussions about writing and diversity issues with student groups from the Ottawa Carleton School District, at Sir Wilifred Laurier Secondary School and at Woodroffe Secondary School, and with the district's Student Success Teachers.
Foster took his creative writing students on a field trip to the Kentuck Arts Festival in Northport, Alabama, on October 17, 2009.
Foster traveled to New York City on October 2-4, 2009 for the Arts Teacher Fellowship convocation with the Surdna Foundation.
The release event for Treasuring Alabama's Black Belt: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Teaching Place was held on September 20, 2009. And article about the event, written by Robyn Litchfield, ran in the Montgomery Advertiser.
Foster was interviewed for the Alabama State Council on the Arts' "Alabama Arts Radio Series". The interview became available on July 19, and it is also available on iTunes as a free download.
Foster was a panelist at the Council of Writing Program Administrators conference from July 16-19, 2009 in Minneapolis. He spoke about the Writing Our Hope project and his students' participation in the National Conversation on Writing.
Foster and I Just Make People Up were profiled in the article, "The Art of the Words," in the Art Beat section of Montgomery Living magazine, which is Montgomery's local lifestyle publication, in their June 2009 issue.
Foster and Clark Walker signed books and sold paintings at Black Belt Treasures in Camden (Alabama) on Saturday, May 16, 2009 from 11 am until 1 pm.
Foster was a Featured Author at the 2009 Alabama Book Festival on Saturday, April 18, 2009 in Montgomery, Alabama. He shared a time slot with journalist and writer Wayne Greenhaw from 10-11 a.m.
Foster and Clark Walker were interviewed together by Carolyn Hutchison on WTSU (89.9 FM, Troy University-Montgomery). The interview ran on April 10, 2009 during the noon-hour "Community Focus" program.
Foster's poem, "The Brotherhood of Man," appears in the April 2009 issue of Birmingham Arts Journal.
Foster spoke to the Tintagil literary group in Montgomery about I Just Make People Up on March 10, 2009.
Foster, Clark Walker, and Valerie Downes signed copies of I Just Make People Up at Capitol Book & News in Montgomery on February 12, 2009, from 5-7 pm.
I Just Make People Up has been reviewed by Julia Oliver for the Alabama Writers Forum and by Martha Rouse Gates for the Montgomery Advertiser.
I Just Make People Up: Ramblings With Clark Walker was released at Stonehenge Gallery in Montgomery, Alabama, on January 22, 2009.
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Foster Dickson is a writer, editor, and teacher in Montgomery, Alabama. He is the author of three books: Kindling Not Yet Split (Court Street Press, 2002), I Just Make People Up: Ramblings with Clark Walker (NewSouth Books, 2009), and The Life and Poetry of John Beecher (Edwin Mellen Press, 2009), and the general editor of Treasuring Alabama's Black Belt (AUM/AHF, 2009).
RECENT BOOKS BY FOSTER DICKSON!
LEFT: The Life and Poetry of John Beecher (1904-1980): Advocate of Poetry as a Spoken Art
a scholarly work published in August 2009 by Edwin Mellen Press
RIGHT: Treasuring Alabama's Black Belt: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Teaching Place
a curriculum guide published in September 2009 by AHF, AUM, and Auburn Outreach
OLD NEWS (From 2009 and 2010):
Foster was an invited participant in the "Futures Conference" for the Long Term High School Facility Options plan for Montgomery Public Schools. The all-day meeting was held on September 21, 2010 at Trenholm State Technical College in Montgomery.
Foster was interviewed on August 21 by Rob Gray of the University of South Alabama for a forthcoming documentary that Gray is doing about race relations in Alabama.
Foster was a guest speaker at the June 22nd meeting of One Montgomery.
Foster Dickson was named OUTSTANDING SECONDARY TEACHER OF THE YEAR by the Alabama PTA at their state conference in Huntsville on April 17, 2010.
Foster's review of E. Ethelbert Miller's new memoir, The 5th Inning, appears in the Spring 2010 issue of MultiCultural Review.
Foster's book, The Life and Poetry of John Beecher, was listed in the Alabama Writers Forum's Book Reviews section as a Book Noted in April.
Foster traveled to Huntsville on April 17-18 for the last trip in the Patchwork project. He interviewed Wyatt Akin about his Skate Alabama project.
Foster was involved in a panel discussion on the work of John Beecher at the 2010 Alabama Book Festival on April 17, 2010 during the 10:00-10:30 time slot. NewSouth Books editor-in-chief Randall Williams also discussed publishing Beecher's posthumous poetry collection, One More River to Cross.
Foster led the Creative Writing Workshop session at the second annual Auburn University at Montgomery Liberal Arts Conference (AUMLAC) on Friday, March 26, 2010.
Foster's edited collection of memoirs on growing up on the post-Civil Rights era South was contracted by McFarland & Co., Publishers in March 2010. The book's release date has not yet been set.
On March 19, Foster traveled to southeastern Alabama - the "Wiregrass" - to interview Bill Perkins, the editorial page editor for the Dothan Eagle newspaper, for the Patchwork project.
Foster's handprints were included in a permanent art exhibit called "Hands Uplifted for Freedom and Justice" at Troy University's Rosa Parks Library and Museum. The exhibit's opened on March 4, 2010, and it features bronzed handprints of 54 civil rights activists and social justice workers.
On Sunday, February 28, Foster interviewed Scott Peek of Standard Deluxe in Waverly, and he was a guest of Rivers Langley on "The Dr. Rock and Captain Fantasy Show" on WEGL, Auburn's student radio station.
Foster was among a group of teachers who conducted an professional development on using Treasuring Alabama's Black Belt on February 20, 2010 at Black Belt Treasures in Camden. Foster presented alongside Nancy Anderson (AUM, lead scholar and editor), Sharon Andress (Morgan Academy), and Carol Mays who teaches in Mobile. For a PDF flyer about the event, click here.
Foster continued travels and his interviews and research for the "Patchwork" project, with travels in Alabama to the Tuscaloosa area on January 30 and 31. He interviewed letterpress printer Amos Kennedy, U of A grad student Elliot Knight, filmmaker Andrew Grace and David Snow and Margaret Ann Toohey of Snows Bend Farm.
Foster's article, "Bringing Poetry Back Home," was published in MultiCultural Review in the Winter 2009 issue, which came out in December 2009. The article provides suggestions for different approaches to teaching modern poetry to working-class and lower-income high school students.
Foster and Clark Walker signed copies of I Just Make People Up at Montgomery's Gallery East, located in the Shoppes at Eastchase, on the evening of Thursday, November 19, from 5:30 - 7:30 pm.
Foster was the chairperson for the Creative Nonfiction panel at the SAMLA conference in November 2009 in Atlanta. The 2009 conference's focus is "Human Rights and the Humanities." Last year, Foster was on that panel (at the 2008 conference in Louisville) and read his own essay, "The Humane Reformation."
Foster was a featured author and guest of CBC journalist Adrian Harewood at the Ottawa International Writers Festival on Sunday, October 25 at 4 pm. On Monday and Tuesday, October 26 and 27, Foster conducted seminars and discussions about writing and diversity issues with student groups from the Ottawa Carleton School District, at Sir Wilifred Laurier Secondary School and at Woodroffe Secondary School, and with the district's Student Success Teachers.
Foster took his creative writing students on a field trip to the Kentuck Arts Festival in Northport, Alabama, on October 17, 2009.
Foster traveled to New York City on October 2-4, 2009 for the Arts Teacher Fellowship convocation with the Surdna Foundation.
The release event for Treasuring Alabama's Black Belt: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Teaching Place was held on September 20, 2009. And article about the event, written by Robyn Litchfield, ran in the Montgomery Advertiser.
Foster was interviewed for the Alabama State Council on the Arts' "Alabama Arts Radio Series". The interview became available on July 19, and it is also available on iTunes as a free download.
Foster was a panelist at the Council of Writing Program Administrators conference from July 16-19, 2009 in Minneapolis. He spoke about the Writing Our Hope project and his students' participation in the National Conversation on Writing.
Foster and I Just Make People Up were profiled in the article, "The Art of the Words," in the Art Beat section of Montgomery Living magazine, which is Montgomery's local lifestyle publication, in their June 2009 issue.
Foster and Clark Walker signed books and sold paintings at Black Belt Treasures in Camden (Alabama) on Saturday, May 16, 2009 from 11 am until 1 pm.
Foster was a Featured Author at the 2009 Alabama Book Festival on Saturday, April 18, 2009 in Montgomery, Alabama. He shared a time slot with journalist and writer Wayne Greenhaw from 10-11 a.m.
Foster and Clark Walker were interviewed together by Carolyn Hutchison on WTSU (89.9 FM, Troy University-Montgomery). The interview ran on April 10, 2009 during the noon-hour "Community Focus" program.
Foster's poem, "The Brotherhood of Man," appears in the April 2009 issue of Birmingham Arts Journal.
Foster spoke to the Tintagil literary group in Montgomery about I Just Make People Up on March 10, 2009.
Foster, Clark Walker, and Valerie Downes signed copies of I Just Make People Up at Capitol Book & News in Montgomery on February 12, 2009, from 5-7 pm.
I Just Make People Up has been reviewed by Julia Oliver for the Alabama Writers Forum and by Martha Rouse Gates for the Montgomery Advertiser.
I Just Make People Up: Ramblings With Clark Walker was released at Stonehenge Gallery in Montgomery, Alabama, on January 22, 2009.
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