Foster-Foreman Conference of Distinguished Writers

The twice-a-year Foster-Foreman Conference of Distinguished Writers regularly attracts some of the best writers in the country to campus for free public lectures and to work in hands-on and small-group sessions with students in the College of Communications.

The conference will be the 27th to be held under the auspices of the Foster Professorship since its inception in 1999. Counting the two participants in the spring session, 35 Pulitzer Prize winners have been part of the conference.

Archives

Spring 2012: George Dohrmann, Sports Illustrated / Joby Warrick, The Washington Post (Coverage from The Daily Collegian: Dohrmann / Warrick)

Fall 2011: Isabel Wilkerson, "The Warmth of Other Suns" / Paige St. John, Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune

Spring 2011: Ben Feller, Associated Press / Barbara Laker and Wendy Ruderman, Philadelphia Daily News
(Coverage from The Daily Collegian: Feller / Laker, Sugg)

Fall 2010: Ken Armstrong, Seattle Times / Diana K. Sugg, Baltimore Sun
(Coverage from the The Daily Collegian: Armstrong / Sugg)

Spring 2010: John Grogan, "Marley and Me" / Jayson Stark, ESPN
Fall 2009: Sonia Nazario / Mark Feeney
Spring 2009: Connie Schultz / Michael Bamberger
Spring 2008: Dana Priest / Jim Wooten

Previous conferences have attracted writers such as:

• Michael Bamberger of Sports Illustrated;
  
• Buzz Bissinger, author of "Friday Night Lights";
  
• author Richard Ben Cramer; Ken Fuson of the Des Moines Register;
  
• Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post;
  
• Paul Greenberg of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette;
  
• David Halberstam, who authored numerous best-selling books;
  
• Diana Henriques of The New York Times;
  
• Anne Hull of the Washington Post;
  
• Jerry Kammer of Copley News Service;
  
• Bill Lyon of The Philadelphia Inquirer; author David Maraniss;
  
• Walter Mears, retired Associated Press correspondent;
  
• Penn State alumnus Rod Nordland of Newsweek; syndicated columnist Leonord Pitts Jr.;
  
• William Raspberry, formerly of the Washington Post; Sydney Schanberg, formerly of The New York Times and The Village Voice;
  
• Connie Schultz of the Cleveland Plain Dealer; A
• licia Shepard, senior writer for American Journalism Review;
  
• Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution;
  
• David Shribman, executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; and
  
• Steve Twomey, a Pulitzer Prize-winning feature writer.

Larry Foster, a 1948 graduate of Penn State, and his wife, Ellen Miller Foster, a 1949 graduate, gave $500,000 in 1997 to endow the Foster Professorship in Communications to support new strategies for improving students' writing skills. The Fosters have also helped Penn State students through their support of the University Libraries, endowing the Larry and Ellen Foster Communications Librarian and funding Foster Auditorium, a tiered 134-seat facility designed to support library instruction and programming.