M.K. Foster is a poet, historian of science, and early modern literature scholar from Birmingham, Alabama. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Poet Lore; Narrative; Kenyon Review; Indiana Review; Crazyhorse; The Gettysburg Review; The Missouri Review; Crab Orchard; North American Review; The Columbia Review; Gulf Coast; Rattle; The Account; Adroit Journal; The Journal; Sixth Finch; B O D Y; Ninth Letter; and elsewhere. Her poetry has also been recognized with the Gulf Coast Poetry Prize (selected by Stanley Plumly), an Academy of American Poets Prize (selected by Sally Keith), two Pushcart Prize nominations (2015), and Best of the Net nominations in 2016 and 2019, as well as inclusion in both Best New Poets 2017 (selected by Natalie Diaz) and Best New Poets 2019 (selected by Cate Marvin).  In Fall 2020, Foster's fiction was a 'Top 10' selection for The Molotov Cocktail's 'Flash Monster' prize issue. Grounded in early modern ecocriticism, literary analysis, visual culture, and the history of science, Foster's interdisciplinary academic research focuses on spectacular monstrosity and horror in the natural world, a vein of interests that has led to such diverse subjects as 'monftrous rayne', fossilized shark teeth, apocalypses, and Wunderkammer. Her recent works include her current book project Flood to Fire, which explores mass extinction in the premodern imagination, her analysis of gyaunts in The Spenser Review, and her in-progress public humanities project Natural Histories, Natural Futures. Additionally, Foster is the grateful recipient of several fellowships and grants for her creative and academic work, including a Renaissance Society of America Travel Grant, an Artist Grant to the Vermont Studio Center, a National Alumni Association Fellowship, and two Grants-In-Aid to the Folger Shakespeare Library. She holds a BA from Birmingham-Southern College, an MFA from the University of Maryland, and a PhD from the Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies at the University of Alabama.