Bellisario College of Communications

Pulitzer Prize-winners scheduled for renamed Foster-Foreman Conference

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- A pair of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists will visit the University Park campus at Penn State for the renamed Foster-Foreman Conference of Distinguished Writers, interacting with students and participating in free public presentations and question-and-answer sessions in early October.

The two-day event features Isabel Wilkerson, author of "The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration," at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11, in Heritage Hall of the HUB-Robeson Center and Paige St. John, an investigative reporter for the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune, at 10:10 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 12, in the HUB-Robeson Center Auditorium.

Wilkerson earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for her coverage of floods in the Midwest and for her profile of a 10-year-old boy who was responsible for his four siblings. St. John was honored earlier this year for investigative reporting in her series "Florida's Insurance Nightmare."

Counting the two visitors this fall, the conference has welcomed 33 Pulitzer Prize winners since its inception in 1999.

Legendary journalist and award-winning Penn State faculty member Gene Foreman, who has guided the conference since it was created and whose connections and universal respect in the journalism community have enabled the twice-a-year event to attract the best writers in the nation, will be honored as well.

Starting with the fall conference, the event has been renamed as the Foster-Foreman Conference of Distinguished Writers. It was previously known as the Foster Conference.

"It's an appropriate and deserved honor," said Doug Anderson, dean of the College of Communications. "Gene Foreman has been the driving force, the heart and soul, of the conference. Because of him, scores of the best writers in the nation have visited campus and thousands of students have benefited from their expertise and presence."

A gift from Penn State alumni Larry and Ellen Foster, who rank among the most consistent and loyal supporters of the University, made the conference possible in 1999.

Larry and Ellen Foster commented: "Gene Foreman has attracted to Penn State a remarkable array of distinguished writers and journalists, more than 30 of whom have won Pulitzer Prizes. We have attended many of the programs and heard students say how inspired they are to be better writers and journalists. No other College of Communications has a program quite like the one Gene Foreman has put together. It is an honor to have him as co-sponsor."

In the College of Communications alone, the Fosters previously have provided funds to endow the Larry and Ellen Foster Professorship in Writing and Editing and to support the twice-a-year conference; they have made major contributions to enhance Carnegie Building's lobby, main conference room and student services area; they have created the Lawrence G. and Ellen M. Foster Scholarship Endowment; they have created the Lawrence G. and Ellen M. Foster Trustee Scholarship Endowment; they have provided a lead gift to establish the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication; and they have provided significant support for the new multimedia newsroom at Innovation Park.

Larry earned his degree at Penn State in 1948, and Ellen earned her degree in 1949.

Foreman worked 41 years in newspaper journalism -- not counting eight summer jobs in high school and college, or his carrier route before that. He was the managing editor of three newspapers: the Pine Bluff (Ark.) Commercial, the Arkansas Democrat in Little Rock and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Also during his career, he worked as a reporter and assigning editor at the Arkansas Gazette in Little Rock, as a copy editor at The New York Times, and as the senior editor in charge of news and copy desks at Newsday on Long Island.

He spent 25 years at The Inquirer under various titles -- managing editor, executive editor and deputy editor. He also was a vice president of the company. He served as a Pulitzer Prize juror three times.

He was the inaugural Foster Professor of Writing and Editing at Penn State, teaching at the University from 1998 to 2006. He was twice honored for excellence in teaching. Since his retirement from full-time teaching, he has served as a visiting professor and has continued to coordinate the conference that now bears his name.

This year's speakers maintain the level of excellence of previous visitors for the event.

Wilkerson, who spent most of her career as a national correspondent and bureau chief at The New York Times, was the first black woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism and the first black American to win for individual reporting. She also has earned a George S. Polk Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Inspired by her own parents' migration, she devoted 15 years to the research and writing of "The Warmth of Other Suns," which won the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction. She interviewed more than 1,200 people to tell the epic story of the six million African-Americans who left the South between 1915 and 1970 for new lives in the North and West.

For her Pulitzer Prize-winning effort that was honored this year, St. John conducted a two-year investigation of insurer reliability and created a database that showed the industry was short-changing consumers while escaping any meaningful government oversight.

She has been a working journalist for more than three decades, covering Florida politics, the environment and natural disasters. Her prior posts include statehouse bureau chief for Gannett News Service, environment reporter for The Detroit News, and Traverse City, Mich., correspondent for the Associated Press.

No registration is necessary for this free conference, which is comprised of two lectures and accompanying question-and-answer sessions.

Paige St. John and Isabel Wilkerson will visit campus for the Foster-Foreman Conference of Distinguished Writers. Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

Last Updated September 6, 2011

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