MOHAVE COUNTY – Mohave Community College Adult Education Faculty member, Susan Foster, has been named the 2023 Utah State Poetry Society’s (UTSPS) Poet of the Year.
Her poetry book, The Falling Water Calls It Grief, received the Society’s Book of the Year Award, and has been published this year by the UTSPS. This award has been a top honor in Utah’s literary circles since 1965, when it originated. Foster is the 56th poet to receive the award.
“I was ecstatic, humbled and very surprised. I have been aware of this award since I was a young person and have always dreamed that I would someday win it,” Foster said.
Her passion for poetry started when she was a child because she was able to express deep feelings and emotion. She used poetry as an avenue to cope with tragic events in her life.
Foster said that for her, poetry is a way of telling a story that explores a memory or time that interweaves human emotion with the beauty and grief of the landscape and the seasons.
Foster has been a faculty member at MCC’s North Mohave Campus, located in Colorado City, since 2018. She teaches the GED Prep class, along with developmental math and English. She earned her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing-Poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She also has a master’s degree in accounting from Utah State University.
She says her goal in teaching at MCC is to help students see that education can transform their lives and lead to the fulfillment of their dreams. She is looking forward to teaching a community education creative writing class at NMC soon.
Foster is a Utah native but has lived in Pennsylvania, Colorado and Arizona. When she’s not teaching or writing poetry, she loves exploring the landscape, spending time with her family and three cats, and teaching violin and piano lessons.
MCC’s Adult Education department provides services to help people earn a High School Equivalency Diploma, also known as a GED, and English Language Acquisition (ELA). ELA classes are a great resource designed for students whose native language is not English. These classes help students advance in employment opportunities, and learn basic physical and social needs, including how to apply for jobs, write resumes and prepare for interviews. For information on Adult Education, visit Mohave.edu/adult-education.
