Linda Nemec Foster is the author of 11 collections of poetry, including The Lake Michigan Mermaid (Wayne State University Press, 2018), coauthored with Anne-Marie Oomen; Talking Diamonds (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2009); and Amber Necklace from Gdańsk (Louisiana State University Press, 2001). Her work has been published in anthologies, magazines, and journals, including the Georgia Review, Nimrod, Quarterly West, Witness, New American Writing, North American Review, and Verse Daily. Her poems have been translated into European languages, have inspired original musical compositions, and have been produced for the stage.

Foster has received awards and residencies from the Arts Foundation of Michigan, Creative Many Michigan, the YMCA National Writer’s Voice, the Academy of American Poets, and the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Contest. From 2003 to 2005 she served as the first poet laureate of Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 2015 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Dyer-Ives Foundation for her poetry and advocacy of the literary arts in Michigan. Foster is the founder of the Contemporary Writers Series at Aquinas College.