FOSTER, Marilee 1971-

PERSONAL: Born 1971; daughter of Cliff Foster. Education: Beloit College, B.A., 1994.

ADDRESSES: Home—Sagaponack, NY. Agent—c/o Author's Mail, Bridge Works Publishing, Bridge Lane, Bridgehampton, NY 11932.

CAREER: Farmer, writer, and ceramic artist. Southampton Press, column writer, 1996—.

WRITINGS:

Dirt under My Nails: An American Farmer and HerChanging Land, Bridge Works (Bridgehampton, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Marilee Foster grew up on a six-hundred-acre potato farm in Sagaponack, New York. Not planning on becoming a farmer, she went to college and received a liberal arts degree. Foster planned on being an artist, but fate intervened when her family needed her help on the farm during a drought in 1994. She never left. Foster farms potatoes with her brother and father plus her own ten acres of various vegetables to sell at her farm stand. She hasn't forgotten about her art, however. She is also a ceramic artist and writes a weekly column for the Southampton Press called "Sagaponack Scene" in which she describes life as a farmer.

Dirt under My Nails: An American Farmer and Her Changing Land is based on articles Foster wrote for the Southampton Press. In Dirt under My Nails she describes farming life during the different seasons. She also tells about the overdeveloped and over-crowded lands surrounding Sagaponack farmland due to the influx of the rich and their summer retreats. "Her charming essays sparkle with insight and humor, and speak movingly of the enchantment she finds in the world around her, even when it is in danger of being lost forever," concluded a Publishers Weekly contributor.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Booklist, April 1, 2002, Carol Haggas, review of Dirt under My Nails: An American Farmer and Her Changing Land, p. 1290.

Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 20020, review of Dirt underMy Nails, p. 306.

Library Journal, April 15, 2002, Ilse Heidmann, review of Dirt under My Nails, p. 117.

Publishers Weekly, April 15, 2002, review of Dirt under My Nails, p. 55.

online

Calendar Live,http://www.calendarlive.com/ (July 19, 2002), Susan Salter Reynolds, review of Dirt under My Nails.

Newsday,http://www.newsday.com/ (July 19, 2002), Sylvia Carter, "The Making of a Farmer."

Star Tribune,http://www.startribune.com/ (July 19, 2002), David Walton, review of Dirt Under My Nails.*