Lester A. Batiste graduated from EHS in 2009. Lester A. Batiste was born and raised on the Southside of Chicago. He attended Colby College where he played football and graduated, with honors, as an English Lit major with a concentration in Creative Writing in 2013. After college, Lester earned his M.S. Ed from the University of Pennsylvania while also completing his MFA at Stonecoast, a low residency writing program associated with the University of Southern Maine. Lester is a published poet. His work has appeared in the Tulane Review, The Griot Journal, The Stone House Anthology, and A Garden of Black Joy Anthology. Lester currently lives in Minneapolis, MN and teaches English literature classes and co-facilitates SHADES, an affinity group for students of African, African-American, and Black descent at The Blake School. As an assistant linebacker coach, Lester helped guide the SMB Wolfpack to their first Minnesota state football title in 2018. He currently spends his time writing, teaching, cooking, and laughing with his partner, Jill, while raising their niece and nephew, Amir and Nichelle, in Minnesota.