FAIRMONT — Fairmont State University students and community members huddled into the top floor of the West Virginia Folklife Center Wednesday evening, awaiting a reading from Artist-in-Residence Patricia Foster.
After brief introductions, Foster made her way to a podium at the front of the room, surrounded by an ongoing exhibit that explores the different cultural traditions composing West Virginia folklife.
Scenes of Appalachian life and the natural world from Foster’s collection of essays “Written in the Sky: Lessons of a Southern Daughter” anchored audience members in a storytelling tradition key to both the Mountain State and Foster’s native Alabama.
Foster is Fairmont State’s first artist-in-residence since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This semester, she will give a lecture at the school’s Women and Gender Studies Colloquium, sit in on classes, and teach her own master class in nonfiction writing for students on campus.
Foster came to campus on Sept. 18, the first of her two residency visits this semester. So far, she described her time on campus as “marvelous.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been to a friendlier town in the United States,” Foster said.
Foster said meeting Fairmont State students has been a highlight of her residency thus far, and that she has been impressed by the skills of student writers.
Fairmont is a “place full of oral storytelling,” Foster said. “People take stories seriously, and I think that’s very important for our culture where we get soundbites.”
For her reading, Foster shared an essay that explored life orbiting the coal mining industry and how it rings true for her childhood and West Virginia audiences alike.
“I thought there was a connection,” she said. “I didn’t grow up in a coal town, but I visited there. I would hear the coal trucks coming down the grade, and it was that sound I’ll always remember.”
Foster was invited to take up the residency by fellow Florida State University alum Donna Long, who serves as a professor of English at Fairmont State and editor of the school’s literary journal, “Kestrel.”
Following a long residency hiatus due to the pandemic, “We’re just kind of kicking it off,” Long said. “There’s a lot of support among faculty and our new president.”
Long met Foster at Florida State, and said she has “always been inspiring to me as a writer, as a woman, and as an academic.”
When reviving the residency program became a topic of discussion, “Patricia immediately came to mind as the perfect candidate,” Long said. “I knew she would bring to Fairmont State extraordinary writing talent, masterful teaching, warmth of personality, and an almost inexhaustible work ethic.”
Fairmont State President Mike Davis, who is in the first semester of his term, attended Wednesday evening’s reading. He noted that he does not always get to attend arts and culture events, so the reading was particularly enjoyable.
“Coming out of the pandemic, people are looking for ways to be engaged,” Davis said. “When we invite speakers from off campus, it reminds us of this big world out there.”
Davis said Foster is just one of many speakers the school hopes to invite to campus in the near future.
Angela Schwer, chair of Fairmont State’s Department of Humanities, said Foster sat in on an Appalachian literature and film class on Monday, and that it was “lovely having her” as a participant.
“Her roots are in Appalachian Alabama, and she has coal miners in her family,” Schwer said. Schwer added that Foster provided valuable insight to class discussions.
“I am so pleased that we can have a writer of her stature here,” Schwer said. “Hearing beautiful prose like that makes me want to be a better writer myself.”
Looking to the future, Foster said she is excited for more opportunities to mentor Fairmont State students and forge connections with the Mountain State at large.
“I’m going to be working with students and getting them ready to give readings themselves,” Foster said.