Jennifer Elise Foerster is a poet, writer, and teacher. She has published three poetry books and served as Associate Editor for ''When the Light of the World Was Subdued Our Songs Came Through, A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry'' (2020), and has been published in numerous journal publications and anthologies. Her 2013 book ''Leaving Tulsa'' was a finalist for the shortlist of the 2014

PEN/Open Book PEN/Open Book (known as the Beyond Margins Award through 2009) is a program intended to foster racial and ethnic diversity within the literary and publishing communities, and works to establish access for diverse literary groups to the publishing i ...

Award.

Early life and family

Foerster's father was in the U.S. Air Force, so she grew up living in many cities in the U.S. and Europe. While she is now based in San Francisco, California, Foerster belongs to the

Muscogee Nation The Muscogee Nation, or Muscogee (Creek) Nation, is a federally recognized Native American tribe based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The nation descends from the historic Muscogee Confederacy, a large group of indigenous peoples of the Southe ...

, a Native American Nation located in

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

. In addition to her Mvskoke relatives, she is of German and Dutch heritage.

Education

Foerster earned her

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachelor ...

from the Institute of American Indian Arts,

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and PhD in Literary Arts from the University of Denver. She also has received fellowships, including the NEA Creative Writing Fellowship (2017), a Lannan Foundation Writing Residency Fellowship (2014), a Robert Frost Fellow in Poetry at Breadloaf (2017), and a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

(2008–2010).

Works

Her poetry works are: *''Leaving Tulsa'' (University of Arizona Press, 2013) *''Bright Raft in the Afterweather'' (University of Arizona Press, 2018) *''The Maybe-Bird'' (The Song Cave, 2022)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foerster, Jennifer American women poets Year of birth missing (living people) Native American women writers Muscogee (Creek) Nation people Poets from California Institute of American Indian Arts alumni Vermont College of Fine Arts alumni University of Denver alumni Living people 21st-century Native Americans 21st-century Native American women