Tuesday, April 9, 2024, 7:00 p.m.
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 506 North Pine Street, Foley, AL 36535
Presented by the Commission on Racial Justice and Reconciliation of the Episcopal Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast
In Written in the Sky: Lessons of a Southern Daughter, published by the University of Alabama Press, Dr. Foster presents a double portrait of place and family, a book of deeply personal essays that interrogate the legacy of racial tensions in the South, the constriction of caste and gender, and the ways race, class, and white privilege are
entwined in her own family story. In the book, she reflects on the racial scars and crossroads in her southern past and reckons with the intimate places of her own wounding and grief.
The story of place, Dr. Foster discovers, emerges not only from family histories and cultural traditions but also from wrestling with a culture’s irreconcilable ideas: the hard push to determine what matters. What matters to her are the shadow stories beneath our mythologies, the complicated and radiant narratives that must be excavated and reckoned with, stories that have no neat or binary resolution, stories full of luminous moments and riveting facts, and stories where the secrets hide. Written in the Sky presents the best of nonfiction storytelling: searingly honest portraits, dramatic encounters, and lyrical narratives that will interest teachers and students, as well as social justice advocates, policymakers, and readers compelled by stories of awakening and the white-hot beauty of language.
A native of Baldwin County, Alabama, Dr. Foster graduated from Foley High School and went on to earn a B.A. in sociology, an M.F.A. in art, an M.F.A. in fiction, and a Ph.D. She has taught at Goddard College and the University of lowa, where she held a full professorship. She has also pursued a successful career as a writer and as a book editor. Her books include Minding the Body: Women Writers on Body and Soul (editor), Sister to Sister (editor), The Healing Circle: Narratives of Recovery (editor), All the Lost Girls: Confessions of a Southern Daughter, Just Beneath My Skin, and Girl from Soldier Creek.
