THOMAS C. FOSTER

Thomas C. Foster is a Professor of English at the University of Michigan, Flint and the author of How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines and How to Read Novels Like a Professor: A Jaunty Exploration of the World’s Favorite Literary Form (both published by HarperCollins). Foster is a lively and entertaining guide to novels and every other genre of literature. As the ultimate professional reader – a college professor for over 25 years – he shows audiences (lay people and students) how to make their everyday reading experience more enriching, satisfying, and fun.

Foster’s academic specialty is in twentieth-century British, Irish, and American literature, although he also teaches introductions to drama and fiction, creative writing, and the classics in translation. His particular interests are the modern novel, contemporary Irish poetry – especially Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland, and Paul Muldoon – modernism and postmodernism, and fine writing generally. In addition to traditional classes, he also teaches online and mixed-mode courses. 

After taking his A.B. at Dartmouth College and his M.A. and Ph.D. at Michigan State University, Foster taught at Michigan State and Kalamazoo College before arriving in Flint, where he has taught for over 20 years. He recently became the first Director of the English Graduate Program, having led the department’s efforts to design and establish the new offering. He has written several books on twentieth-century British and Irish literature and poetry and lives in East Lansing, Michigan.

Praise for How to Read Literature Like a Professor:

“I know of no other book that so vividly conveys what it’s like to study with a great literature professor. In a work that is both down-to-earth and rich in insight, Thomas Foster goes far towards breaking down the wall that has long divided the academic and the common reader.”

—James Shapiro, Columbia University, author of Shakespeare and the Jews

“Tom Foster’s casual, unpretentious, yet brilliant How To Read Literature Like a Professor is a painless introduction to crucial – and sophisticated – skills of reading. What a sense of the comic! What a knowledge of modern literature! What good stories!”

—Linda Wagner-Martin, UNC-Chapel Hill, author of Sylvia Plath: A Life