Lucien Stryk, former NIU English professor and world-renowned Zen poet, will be honored Friday by The Association of Writers and Writing Programs in Chicago.

Stryk worked at NIU from 1958 until 1991, and has written or edited two dozen volumes of poetry, translations and collections.

The association will pay tribute to Stryk during its annual conference and book fair. More than 3,000 writers are expected to attend.

Karl Elder, an NIU alumnus and former student of Stryk, will read a tribute at the ceremony. Elder said Stryk is his mentor.

“I’m not ashamed to call him my spiritual father,” he said. “He’s a great human being.”

Elder, who currently is the Fessler Professor of English and Writing in Residence at Lakeland College in Wisconsin, first took a class with Stryk in 1970 and continued to do so as he worked on his master’s until 1974.

Elder’s tribute, “The Moral Authority of Lucien Stryk,” is a memoir from a special feature of writers on their mentors. The memoir discusses how Zen helped Stryk through the tough times he had growing up during World War I, Elder said, and how Stryk has used poetry as his way to help others alleviate pain and suffering.

Stryk received several awards while teaching at NIU, including the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award and the Presidential Research Professorship.

The tribute will be held from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Friday in the Palmer House’s Monroe Ballroom.