M.K. Foster is a poet and Renaissance literature scholar from Birmingham, Alabama. Her poetry and fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The Gettysburg Review; Crazyhorse; Crab Orchard; Boston Review; The Columbia Review; Best New Poets 2017; Best New Poets 2019; and elsewhere. Her poetry has been recognized with the Gulf Coast Poetry Prize, an Academy of American Poets Prize, Pushcart Prize nominations, and Best of the Net nominations. Foster's academic research, the symbiotic counterpart of her creative work, focuses on the history of science, spectacular monstrosity, and horror in the natural world of early modern Europe, a vein of interests that has led to such diverse subjects as tree monsters, celestial weather, fossilized shark teeth, and mass extinction. Foster holds an M.F.A. from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. from the University of Alabama. At present, she is an Assistant Lecturer of English and Co-Director of the Writing Center at Birmingham-Southern College.