creative writing on forest

Write that Scene

May your writing spirit live on forever

How to Write a Forest Scene

A. write more about the trees and greenery. give the reader insight to the location and the weather..

B. Write about the animals and the life that exist in this Forest. You can even make up your own and/ or it could be humans that live in the forest.

Orangutans spend most of their time in the forest canopy where they feed on leaves, figs and other fruit, bark, nuts, and insects. Large trees of the old-growth forests support woody vines that serve as aerial ladders, enabling the animals to move about, build their nests, and forage for food.
The largest of all primates, the gorilla. Too large and clumsy to move about in the forest canopy, the gorilla lives on the forest floor where it forages for a variety of plant materials.
The jaguar. Its endangered status is the result of hunting and habitat loss.
The Puerto Rican parrot (Amazona vittata), a medium-sized, green bird with blue wing feathers
Below the canopy the waters are filled with fish life. Kelp bass find the middle of the kelp forest to be a good hunting area, while Sheephead, a boldly colored fish, like to feed on the larger invertebrates that live among the kelp stipes and tend to hang out towards the bottom of the forest.
Insects (morpho butterfly, Julia butterfly, Monarch butterfly, and millions of other insects) mammals (jaguar, ocelot, didelphid opossums, sloth, howler monkey, spider monkey, capybara, many bats, marmosets, procyonids, peccaries)
Birds (quetzal, macaw, tinamous, curassows, hoatzins, hummingbirds, eagles, ovenbirds, antbirds, flycatchers, puffbirds, toucans, jacamars, tanagers, tapirs, troupials, honeycreepers, cardinal grosbeaks, xenops) reptiles (anaconda, caiman, iguanas, lizards, microteiid lizards, boas, and coral snakes), amphibians (poison arrow frog, etc.)
Fish (electric eel, piranha), and millions of other animals.Australia – mammals (tree kangaroo, rat kangaroo, yellow-footed Antechinus, Giant White-tailed Uromys, opossums, bandicoot, echidna, duck-billed platypus, sugar glider, red legged pademelon)
Reptiles (frilled lizard, carpet python, Green Tree Snake, Spotted Tree Monitor, Eastern Water Dragon, Boyd’s Forest Dragon, Northern Leaf Tailed Gecko)
Amphibians (Giant Tree frog, Striped marsh frog, Northern Barred frog, Dainty Green Tree frog), and millions of other animals.Southeast Asia –
mammals (tarsiers, orangutans, Siamangs, gibbons, colobine monkeys, tigers, tree shrews, binturong, moonrats, most flying foxes, colugos, bamboo rats, Oriental dormice)
birds (tree swifts, leafbirds, fairy bluebirds, fantails, whistlers, flowerpeckers, wood swallows)
insects (Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing butterfly, Goliath Birdwing butterfly, Saturn Butterfly) to name a few.West Africa –
mammals (antelopes, bonobo, chimpanzee, gorilla, Mandrill, scaly-tailed squirrels, otter shrews, duikers, okapi, hippopotamus, Cercopithecus monkeys, bushbabies, pygmy hippo, duiker)
birds (Congo peafowl, African Gray Parrot) to name a few.

C. Describe how these things have a connection to the story and to the overall plot. Give hint to how they will be a part of the journey.

I. What about the animals and the forest is important to the story and to the character? How are they a vital allie to the trail and the path of the rain forest?

I I. Ultimately how are these things good? Give signs and behavior patterns that will differentiate them from good and evil. Or keep it a mystery to enhance the dynamics of your story.

I I I. Use ideologies, metaphors, and similes to create an experience your character is having. How they connect with the forest atmosphere and the creatures who dwell inside this area.

A. Why is your character there in the first place and how long do they plan on staying? Their journey can all the sudden become extended or shortened by anything.

I. Think of all the things you might find in a dark forest and make them experience it.

Insects in the mouth and eyes
Branches in the face and tearing at clothes
Tripping over roots and rocks
Feet crunching on dirt, snapping twigs
His/her own gasping breath in the silence
Sounds of creatures pursuing him
Howling of wolves in the distance
Owls hooting in the night

I I. Explain their thoughts, the worries, even ultimately telling the reader what’s at stake for the character.

I I I. Do they meet someone along the way? Is there a barrier or path they cannot take or overcome? Or do they find a great shortcut? Is a shortcut even safe?

B. Is there anything out of the usual? Does it become too much for the character to handle to where they will need someone or something to help them? Maybe it’s the animals and life that live in the forest or the forest itself.

I. Is there magic involved? Are there a new philosophies or new rules that doesn’t pertain to our own world, involved? If so, who is controlling this? Does the character have an idea who might be behind these doing?

I I. Does the character actively call out loud for someone or something to help them? Does anyone come to their aid? Is it magical or ordinary? Where has this person or being been all that time? Was this all a test to begin with?

I I I. Must the character return the favor somehow or is it given for free? Does the character somehow speak to this thing or person or are they dumbfounded? Do they just accept what happened or begin to question the place they’re in? Does this mean they’re about to escape or try to at least?

C. Show some relief of the problem or a solution that is at a near distance. Give the reader hope for the character.

I. How are they coping with these sudden changes and surprises? Are they able to take a break at all and stop to get some air from what is going on?

I I. If s/he’s running to vent because she heard something emotionally traumatizing and they’re running away from the impact it has on them, then s/he would be tripping and stumbling not out of fear but out of anxiety to get away.

If s/he’s running through the woods because it’s a pass time and they enjoy it, then you select words and thoughts and structure your sentences to give a peaceful tone (or whatever emotion you’re aiming for).

I I I. What talents skills or abilities does the character have the makes them seem not so hopeless?

A. Show how the forest becomes an aide to the character and/or the character becomes an aide/savior to the forest.

I. Can the animals speak English, can the character all the sudden communicate with the animals, or do they have to find a creative way to speak with each other?

I I. Maybe the trees sway in the wind and gives direction to the character on where to go, what if something randomly falls down as a way to direct the character to a specific path? You can use sound, you can use smell, you can use all the human senses. Be creative.

B. Is there any magic that is in the place? How about the connection between the scenery and the character? How does it strengthen them or how does it weaken them?

I. What type of Magic? Is it something that can be learned? Is it something that can be avoided or counteracted? Does the magic bring anything alive or keeps things dead? Does the magic prevent the forest from doing anything or allows it to do more than what it once could?

I I. Does the character softly walk through the forest to avoid from causing any harm? Does the character do anything weird to the forest such as pray to it or use the trees leaves as clothing? Why are they acting this way?

I I I. How about the forest? Does the forest do anything out of character to gain the character’s interest? Does it offer the character anything?

C. Are there hints in the forest that the character can only see and their enemy cannot? How does the forest communicate with the character? How does the character communicate with the forest?

I. Why can the character see these hints and the enemy cannot? How do they know that these are going to protect them? What has the forest done that makes the character believe it’s okay to to follow unknowingly or even listen to?

I I. How desperate does they forest become? Will they go to great lengths to protect the character? Or will the character go through great lengths to protect the forest? Where does this bond come from and how does it help the character easily flow through the forest?

I I I. Or maybe the forest is silent. Maybe the forest has no magic or is on no one side. If so, how does the character use the forest as they please?

A. Add some drama, some danger, what is breaking… what is causing Mayhem? How is the character mentally handling it and what might be their demise?

I. Give details about the great enemy. What is the character learning thus far? Who are their allies? At what point in their Journey are they at and how close are they to finishing?

I I. Are there any swamps, quicksand, spiders, snakes, or otherwise that wouldn’t necessarily be in another land? How much harder is it to journey through the forest than it is somewhere else?

I I I. Do they get injured, do they somehow make a mistake that they cannot take back? Has the forest abandoned them? Have the animals abandoned them? Have they abandoned themselves and their will to live?

B. If the enemy is directed towards the forest, then how does the forest cope with it and what is it doing to protect itself? How is the character helping to protect the forest if at all?

I. Why is this evil thing having a war with the forest? Does the character understand why? Is it a being? Is it nature? Is it a Mystic being? Is it the forest itself that’s their own enemy?

I I. Do the branches hit and sway? Do the leaves fall down from the branches to the ground as a way of surrender? Do the animals bite, bark growl? Do trees fall down? Do trees move as if they had feet?

C. Put a bit of focus on the enemy; the danger. How do they look? what are they doing? how does it seem for them to be in this Forest? what threats are they saying? what weapons do they have? how many people are on the enemy army? How much more powerful is this threat?

I. How does the face look? How powerful is this evil? How weak are they; what is their weak link? How long has the war/battle been going on?

I I. Where did this enemy come from? How evil are they or do they have some kindness to them? Is it never ending or does it have a downfall? Is it hurting itself by battling the forest or the character? Or is battling the forest or the character making it stronger?

I I I. If the character or the forest is battling themselves, then describe the pain they are inflicting on itself through the eyes of who is watching. How much longer until the end is near? In other words, is it hopeless to help?

A. Is everything complete, is everything at peace, how does the character feel?

I. What are the goodbyes like? What actions do they take to make sure they are thanking the forest and that the forest understands what they’re saying?

I I. How much has the character contributed? Where does the health of the character and the forest lie? Are they both to thank for a good ending? Who’s to blame for a bad ending? Is there any animosity between the character and the forest? Remember, the animals are considered to be part of the forest.

I I I. Is there any gifts exchanged? Are there any songs sang? Is there a promise of return?

B. How about if the threat is still alive? how has the character left the threat or if they decide to stay how are they keeping the threat at bay?

I. Is threat gone away for a while? Is it sure to return? Will the character return before the threat returns but with more weapons or people to battle?

I I. If the character stayed, what are they doing in order to protect the forest? How much do they have to sacrifice to keep the forest in good shape? Is the forest doing anything to thank them or to protect the character in return? Is this a completely selfless act?

I I I. Vice versa. What must the forest do in order to continue to protect the character? How’s the character thanking the forest?

C. Let the reader know who’s in charge, whether it’s the character the forest or the enemy at the end of the scene. Let them know where it should start the next time you begin this scene. If it is finished then make sure you bring out the person you want to bring out on top. But not without consequence; there must be signs of a battle.

I. Who left the battle? Who had the most battle scars? Who showed signs of fear? And how did they show these signs if they weren’t human?

I I. Is there a prophecy? Were there hostile words exchanged? Was there a time when the character or the forest felt like they failed or were about to lose? Is this a false win?

I I I. Is there peace at the end of the scene? Or is there a lot to be desired? What is the last thing that the character remembers about the forest or sees?

!You might have to scroll down the textbox with your mouse!

Coming Soon

3 thoughts on “ How to Write a Forest Scene ”

Glad to hear that!

Thanks so much!

A billion verdant wands of pine wave in arboreal air; for this place is magical, so much so that you can feel it from core to finger tips.

The forest silences the clocks, for this place of root and branch is the dominion of the eternal soul.

From the rich brown earthen hues of the forest ground to the sweetness of the blue-white sky, the forest is a three dimensional wonderland for the eyes who are willing to absorb the light.

In this forest I am with my tribe of wood and leaf, among the giants who's roots hug the earth. It is a place of ancient souls, of the creatures who dwell with the sweet sounds of moving water and bird song. Somehow this is more home than home, perhaps one day I'll learn why.

Upon the forest floor lie trees of yesteryear, fallen in storms long forgotten. The seasons have been harsh, stripping away the bark and outer layers, yet rendering them all the more beautiful. They have the appearance of driftwood, twisting in patterns that remind Sarah of seaside waves; even the colour of the moss is kelp-like. They are soft, damp, yet her fingers come away dry. Sarah tilts her head upward, feeling her hair tumble further down her back; the pines are several houses tall, reaching toward the golden rays of spring. Birdsong comes in lulls and bursts, the silence and the singing working together as well as any improvised melody. A new smile paints itself upon her freckled face, rose-pink lips semi-illuminated by the dappled light. Before she knows it her feet have begun to walk, body and mind both on autopilot - it's morning-time and no-one expects her home until supper.

Perhaps it would be a fitting tribute to the life work of Sir David Attenborough, as well as a much needed step to save our own souls, to ban the sale of all furniture made from new wood. Such a step would be positive shift in the economy and the way we live. Jobs in refurbishment and the antique industry would flourish - we'd gain more carpenters and artists who can work from home. As we move into more plant based diets the stems of wheat and other plant materials could be used in furniture production. We can amend the way we live, taking inspiration from other cultures. Many eat sitting on the floor, thus doing away with dinning tables and dining chairs. How about sleeping more Japanese style with a mattress that rolls up during the day - no wooden frame. We use recycled and reclaimed materials too - perhaps the harvesting of plastic from the oceans for reuse will gain financial viability as well as being the right thing to do.

It is to the forest I go for rest, for serenity that flows as cool river waters. There is something about the sparkle upon the blue, a melody without a rhythm, music without sound. Above wave the great arms, clothed in the greens of every palate and none, the verdant hues of nature's free dreams. In that place I become a part of that art, of that three dimensional creation of time and space, of a greater evolutionary span than my brain can fathom. It's when I stop knowing and begin feeling, it's when I hear with my heart the voices of these mighty trees, "Sister, welcome."

In the forest I breathe in every way that it is possible to expand: in lungs, in brain in soul. In the forest there is a sense of kinship with the flora, of an ancient soul that stretches into everything that lives. It is here under the nascent rays of a sun born to rise each day that I am so very alive. How could I not love the forest so? From simple seed, with mud, water and sun, comes all this, these towering gentle giants that are so anchoring to all that I am.

And upon the forest floor so woven with ancient tree roots came a light filtered by the bouquet of foliage above: softened, verdant and freshly aromatic.

When the day is growing old and the hearth calls, the sun sinks down beneath the tops of the pines. The light streaks through the boughs in both brilliant and shadowy beams. In the summertime they were white gold, illuminating the greens into virescent riots; yet the gift of those warm days has passed for the season. On these wintry days the fogs cast those same beams of light into sepia tones and the woodland becomes the most beautiful of photographs. The trunks of fallen trees bare icicles longer than my hand, no two of them the same - more enchanting than any work of man. Every twig and blade of grass grows winter "leaves" of ice crystals, frost deeper than the fleece in my gloves. And never is the woodland silent, though it is quieter than any city street for sure. There are the birds above, calling, pecking for grubs. There is movement of mammals, mostly small, sometimes not. There is is the water that flows quietly until it meets the sharp rocky scree slopes and forms the waterfalls I love so much.

The forest is the orchestra of my mind, playing one enchanting symphony after another. Her leaves dance to an unheard beat, whispering their songs to the wind. In here, sheltered by the mighty trees, is every kind of life, from the humble beetle to enchanting birds of every colour. I hold my hands up to feel the cascading light, a brilliant white shaft illuminating the path that takes me onward and home.

Sign in or sign up for Descriptionar i

Keep track of your favorite writers on Descriptionari

We won't spam your account. Set your permissions during sign up or at any time afterward.

HOW TO LET A WALK IN THE FOREST INSPIRE YOUR WRITING

Forest writing.

Have you ever gone for a walk with a naturalist or a bird watcher? They miss nothing.

“Look! Did you see that? Here, feel the underside of this leaf.” I want to journey through life, seeing and writing about the beauty in every blade of grass under my feet, and story characters in each cloud.

All these paths lead ‘nowhere,’ yet people arrive every day to follow them. With a journey that begins at a parking lot and ends up back in the same place, no two people have the same goal for being in the woods.

Outfitted with pedometers or cameras to gather images of their grandchildren at play, they pass with a nod and a smile. I go for exercise and fresh air and ideas for writing.

My companion soaks up the landscape with its lady slippers and wild rabbits, which will become watercolor paintings later.

ONE PATH, MANY JOURNEYS

People in City Forest walk the same paths but travel unique journeys. And they all end up in the parking lot when they are finished.

However, some days we find ourselves walking from crack to crack on a deserted sidewalk in the rain. Or our travels may take us through a desert with no distinct trails, and we must rely on the position of the sun and the strength of a camel.

How do we live to have no regrets when we find ourselves back in the parking lot?

The answer differs for each person, but it arises from love, curiosity, and creativity.

I encourage you to take metaphorical walks with a bird watcher to see what you may be missing. They will teach you to observe with new eyes.

“What just moved? Look! Do you see the Red-winged blackbird behind the yellow birch? She wants to distract us from seeing her nearby nest. “Let’s go around this stand of hemlocks and see what we find…”

Every naturalist or avian aficionado is made of the same stuff as a writer, artist, or gourmet chef.

For years I put off creative writing – too ‘busy’ earning a living. Oh yes, I had other reasons.

I was afraid I might get lost in a forest of ideas. I wouldn’t have known a gerund if it flapped its feathers in front of me.

Then one day, I decided that I would strike out – no pedometer, no map, no goal other than to see what emerged along the way. And that, my friends, is how TheReflectivePen got started.

A BOARDWALK FOR WRITERS

My fear that this swamp will swallow me keeps me from writing everything that is in my heart.

That’s when I am grateful for those who have gone before and built a boardwalk. If you are one of those who have constructed a way to safely cross the ‘writing bog’ (and you know who you are), thank you.

On the other hand, if you are among the many, many people I meet who say, “I wish I could write,” I want to say, “There is a way – complete with handrails.”

The original mile-long wooden trail that crosses the bog in City Forest had nothing to keep anyone from falling into the wetlands; and also, nothing to keep trespassers from stepping off, killing the delicate flora of the preserve and destroying the habitat of the forest denizens.

Writing requires the same kind of pauses and resting places. And a willingness not to step off the boardwalk, destroying the protected wetlands.

A bog full of our doubts and fears also holds delicate blooms of rare insights we might otherwise miss. Writing asks us to be an observer, a philosopher, and a guardian of life.

GETTING LOST

I once thought I wasn’t smart enough to write because I didn’t have road signs and maps and a GPS. I spent most of my time hunting in ‘how-to’ books. However, they eliminate the fun of wandering through a forest of words, phrases, and metaphors, getting lost in ideas.

One day, in City Forest, I left the main trail to explore a bunny trail, and before I knew it, I was completely turned around with no idea where I was.

I knew which way was north and nervously headed in that direction, knowing I would come to something I recognized eventually. About 30 minutes later, the parking lot came into view like an oasis in the desert.

I later learned that a bear roamed in the restricted area I had wandered into. In my panic to find something familiar, I missed all evidence of a bear – including posted warnings on the trees.

Some signs are worth being aware of on our journey! If you are a regular follower of this blog, you will find yourself wandering along with me as I explore one path after another. That is my joy in life, and I encourage you to explore writing the same way.

Another story you may enjoy about a walk in the Maine woods is ‘ How To Leave A Legacy Story.’

IF YOU EVER THOUGHT YOU MIGHT LIKE TO WRITE, A PLACE IS WAITING FOR YOU ON FACEBOOK. COME AND FIND DAILY PROMPTS AND A SMALL GROWING COMMUNITY TO WELCOME YOU.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/memoircollective

NEVER MISS AN ARTICLE FROM “THE REFLECTIVE PEN”

SUBSCRIBE TODAY

Sign Me Up!

Recent Posts

How to Have Gratitude When Life is Difficult -
Pawndering with Dekker -
What Are You Afraid Of? -

a stressed out dog with his chin on the floor

The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus , a companion to The Emotion Thesaurus , releases May 13th.

Skip to primary navigation
Skip to main content
Skip to primary sidebar

WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

Helping writers become bestselling authors

Setting Thesaurus Entry: Woods at Night

March 5, 2011 by BECCA PUGLISI

There is a forest entry already, but I think that at night the woods can be an entirely different setting, full of mystery and sometimes fear. I figured it deserved its own entry! Notice how other senses are utilized more so than sight–an unusual occurrence.

Dark tree trunks, shadows, overhanging limbs across the path seen at the last second, clumps of bushes, barely visible black trails snaking through the undergrowth, moon shining through a lattice of leaves, patchy sky & stars seen in glimpses through tree breaks, tall shadowed pines stretching up like arrows into the sky, streaks of cloud against the…

Wind slipping through leaves, cracking undergrowth with each step, creaking tree trunks, the flutter of wings unseen, snapping twigs, grass and weed sliding against pant legs, breathing sounds, coyote calls, fox yipping, wolves howling (if within location), snarls, padding feet along a trail, a grunt of pain at catching a root or tripping on dead fall, a rip of…

Rich earth, rotting leaves, pine needles, fresh air, a slight scent of flowers, earthy fungus, tree sap, wild animal musk (if close), possibly the spray of a skunk (if around), green growing things (spring & summer), moss

Sweat on lips, dryness in throat, sometimes a cold metallic tang if lots of stone is present

Cobwebs in face, cold, dewy leaves sliding across skin, slipping on wet leaves and mushrooms, tripping on bumpy roots, stones, dead fall, thorns scratching skin, scrapes and cuts on hands from falling in the dark, pine needles embedded in skin during fall, twisting and jerking at every unfamiliar sound, holding hands out to ward off unseen obstacles like tree…

Helpful hints:

–Think about the conflict that might be present in your setting.

Your character’s emotions will be on high alert at night because their visibility is low, making it a great time to insert conflict. This Conflict Scenario Database is loaded with ideas to help you.

–The words you choose can convey atmosphere and mood.

Example 1: Devin dove behind a wide cedar trunk just off the trail. Heart slamming against his ribs, he gulped at the air, trying to slow his breathing enough to hear. Back in the shadows, branches thrashed and snapped as Valio growled sharp orders to his men. Sunset had finally drained out of the sky overhead, sheathing the woods in shadow. Devin pressed his face against the bark, the ridges biting into his skin, and tried to become one with the tree…

–Similes and metaphors create strong imagery when used sparingly.

Example 1: (Simile) Eileen worked her way along the narrow trail, leaves sliding across her bare forearms like wet tongues…

Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and its sequels. Her books are available in five languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers —a powerhouse online library created to help writers elevate their storytelling.

Reader Interactions

May 1, 2020 at 8:45 am

This is my new account! Thanks for all your kind replies! 🙂

March 11, 2020 at 3:32 pm

if anyone could help me with how to describe palaces and castles, please comment me back.

March 11, 2020 at 4:24 pm

HI Kit, You can find information on Castles and other fantasy settings at our site, One Stop for Writers: https://onestopforwriters.com/scene_settings

Happy writing! ~angela

December 27, 2019 at 8:16 am

this has just made me re think and re write my whole stroy thank you this really helps

May 1, 2020 at 8:43 am

happy to help!

P.S. I’m Angela, this is just a new account! 🙂

July 13, 2017 at 2:55 pm

I would take that fear away from you Laura. Having spend my childhood surrounded by woods on the hills and shore of Cayuga Lake I have spent time in the woods alone at night. It is the imagination and the untrained ear that brings fear into the equation. Shadows unseen during the day become magical at night. All the nocturnal animals want nothing to do with you.

May 1, 2020 at 8:44 am

Thank you so much for your kind reply. Happy to help you always!

December 9, 2011 at 3:17 pm

I do not think I would be walking around the woods at night.

December 6, 2011 at 2:06 pm

Just came across this one and I have to say, it really helped me with a scene I was struggling with. Thank you so much!

March 9, 2011 at 9:15 am

I think the dark tree trunks description sums it up for me. Creepy and suspenseful. This will help me loads in my continued search for publication and getting my story just right.

March 7, 2011 at 1:20 pm

I totally agree, Ralfast. I was just talking about this the other day with my kids, that if they really wanted to see what it would be like at night they would have to go far, far out into the country, beyond all light pollution and population.

March 7, 2011 at 1:15 pm

What makes forest so frightening for the modern viewer/reader is the near total darkness. We are so used to having sources of light 24/7 that our mind panics when we lack it.

March 6, 2011 at 2:41 pm

I love the woods and only a few times have I experienced them at night. It can be a beautiful-creepy feeling.

March 6, 2011 at 1:41 pm

Great–I’m so glad this one helps. So many great stories have night scenes that take place in a forest or wooded area. I think this is a setting that naturally creates tension.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

March 6, 2011 at 2:23 am

Ooooh, just thinking about the woods at night gives me the willies. You nailed it!

March 5, 2011 at 8:23 pm

Very timely. Might be needing this for my wip!Thanks!

March 5, 2011 at 7:31 pm

Loved this post! I just recently started reading this blog, and it has helped me to totally rethink how I’m going to write! Thanks!

March 5, 2011 at 11:25 am

Just wrote a scene involving the woods at night. You are right, they definitely deserve their own entry!

March 5, 2011 at 11:08 am

This totally makes me want to go write a fairy tale. =)

March 5, 2011 at 10:46 am

The woods are lovely dark and deep but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep….

March 5, 2011 at 8:58 am

Walking through the woods at night is definitely different than during the day! I don’t think you could pay me to walk through the woods at night!

[…] Does your setting take place at night? Check out this similar Entry: WOODS AT NIGHT […]

[…] beautiful Brothers Grimm-inspired gallery of forest photographs. And if you get stuck, check out Writing Helping Writers’ “Forest Thesaurus” for even more […]

[…] hushed voices and whispers, muffled footsteps, your own heartbeat. Also, see the setting entry Woods at Night. EMOTIONAL TRIGGERS: Mood: Falling stars happen so quickly; to catch sight of one makes the […]

Privacy Overview

Skip to main content
Skip to primary sidebar

Writing Tips Oasis - A website dedicated to helping writers to write and publish books.

How to Describe a Forest in a Story

By Isobel Coughlan

Do you require some tips on how to describe a forest in a story? Take a look at the 10 words below. Some of them might be useful for your writing.

Something that seems frightening and strange or makes people feel nervous.

“The eerie forest beckoned the children. They were deeply afraid of it, but against their better instincts, they started following the trail.”

“Amanda looked out at the eerie forest. It has scared her ever since she was a child.”

How it Adds Description

If you want to portray your forest as a frightening or creepy place, consider using the word “eerie.” This adjective shows that the forest has a scary aura, and it might put some characters off entering the woodland. It could also imply that dark characters or antagonists lurk beneath the canopy, making it a dangerous place for others.

Something that’s bright yellow in color.

“By late autumn, the forest was completely golden . The lush green leaves had all withered away as the weather cooled.”

“The sun set over the sprawling forest, making it a golden paradise for a short while.”

“Golden” gives your readers a clear visual of the forest and its color. This can show it’s a yellowish color due to the leaves changing color in the autumn. It can also show the forest has a golden tint from the sun setting over it, something that happens during summer evenings. Both occurrences can make the forest feel magical and sometimes even romantic.

Something that has a large number of things placed very close together.

“The prince was surprised when he arrived at the forest. It was too thick to see through.”

“The young boy sprinted through the thick forest, but it seemed like he was running in circles.”

You can use “thick” to describe something that’s very densely packed — and in the case of a forest, this is one with lots of trees and leaves within a small space. A “thick” forest might be hard to navigate or even see through, and this might scare characters or make them feel like they’re trapped. It’s also easy to get lost in a “thick” forest.

Somewhere that has lots of plants and trees .

“The leafy forest was a paradise for the caterpillar.”

“The good witch felt at home in the leafy forest. Anywhere green and natural woke up her powers.”

“Leafy” is often used to draw attention to the abundance of plants and leaves in a setting. You can use “leafy” to show your forest is particularly verdant or green, and this might attract animals, insects, or nature-loving characters.

Something that smells or looks like earth .

“The traveler inhaled the earthy forest’s scent before he even saw the trees.”

“As he trudged through the earthy forest, Paul realized he’d never spent so much time away from the city.”

Sometimes, forests have an “earthy” scent due to the earth on the ground and the smells of the trees. You can use “earthy” to give your readers a vivid image of the forest, allowing them to understand what your characters are experiencing. Some characters might be comforted by an “earthy” forest, but city dwellers might feel uneasy here because they’re not used to so much nature.

Something that’s very large .

“The pixies lived in a vast forest that spanned over three thousand acres.”

“Annie gazed at the vast forest in amazement. It was hard to believe it crossed into two different states.”

If you want to emphasize how large your fictional forest is, consider using “vast.” This adjective shows how large the size of the whole forest is, which is great for helping your reader understand the layout of the setting. Some characters might be fascinated with the “vast” forest, especially if it’s unexplored. However, some might feel uneasy about its size as they don’t know what’s lurking in the shadows.

Something that is small in amount or number.

“Freddy had expected a plentiful and green forest. But sadly, he was met by a few sparse trees.”

“In the winter months, the forest was sparse . All the animals hibernated, and the leaves disappeared.”

Not all forests are abundant, and you can use “sparse” to show yours has fewer trees or is very spread out. Forests might become “sparse” in the winter months due to the cold weather conditions. A forest that’s “sparse” for no apparent reason might worry characters, as this change could foreshadow negative plot events. Helpful characters might try to plant trees in a “sparse” forest in order to restore life to the area.

Somewhere that is very old that belongs to the distant past .

“The ancient forest held secrets from every generation.”

“Quentin shuddered at the thought of the ancient forest. It was definitely haunted.”

“Ancient” can be used to show how old the forest is or that it’s linked to a specific period from the past. Some characters might find the forest’s age scary, as over time, lots of secrets and bad things could have occurred — in a fantasy novel, this could even mean it’s haunted.

Somewhere that’s full of things or people.

“Every Sunday, the villagers visited the crowded forest and paid their respects to the forest fairies.”

“The emerald forest was crowded with trees of every species.”

You can use “crowded” to show that the forest is full of people, trees, or both. This can create a sense of life in the forest, as it’s not empty or barren. However, a “crowded” forest might make some characters feel claustrophobic as there might not be much room, or the exits might be blocked.

10. Mystical

Somewhere with influences and powers that aren’t understood.

“No one knew why the mystical forest glowed at night, and no one was brave enough to ask why.”

“The old woman searched for a mystical forest with a spring that granted eternal life.”

In fiction, some forests can have magical powers or spiritual influences. Describing your forest as “mystical” shows that it has unknown abilities that could help or hinder your characters, depending on whether your forest is good or evil. Your characters may have to complete an epic journey to access the “mystical” forest, setting up the premise for the story.

Never struggle with Show-and-Tell again. Activate your free trial or subscribe to view the Setting Thesaurus in its entirety, or visit the Table of Contents to explore unlocked entries.

HELPFUL TIP:

Textures and sensations:, possible sources of conflict:, people commonly found in this setting:, setting notes and tips:, related settings that may tie in with this one:, setting description example:, techniques and devices used:, descriptive effects:.

How To Describe Trees, Forests & Woodland In Fiction Writing

Good writing has a range of vocabulary. A single word can make all the difference to the tone and meaning of a sentence. There are times when I struggle to find the correct terminology, so I have decided to create word masterlists – helping me and you to write precisely. View the archive of vocabulary masterlists here. Or see any of the following:

How To Describe Trees, Forests & Woodland In Fiction Writing
How To Describe Fields, Grassland And Meadows In Fiction Writing
How To Describe Marshes, Swamps and Bogs In Fiction Writing

Little known fact about me: I’m something of a conservationist. I have a degree in conservation and since 2016 I’ve worked with the Wildlife Trust, the UK’s leading conservation and nature recovery charity. Nature is vast and complicated and there is no way of fitting all the possible terminology onto one list. For this reason, in this post I will be solely focusing on words for trees, forests and woodlands and the features therein, and will largely be focused on UK and European woodlands, though I’m sure a lot of this can be applied elsewhere. This is also not an exhaustive list of everything in a forest, but is a jumping off point for myself and for you to use. With that said, I hope you find this helpful.

Remember: Not all of these words are interchangeble! Read the definitions carefully to make sure you are using the words correctly.

Words for A Group Of Trees

From this list, you would have noticed that these terms not only describe a group of trees, but rather the function of that group of trees. AKA “Are those trees managed and why?”

This is something to consider when describing a woodland. If it is managed, don’t only consider why but consider how . Is it grazed by cattle? Is it cut back by human workers? Different management techniques result in different types of habitat, ergo different terminology.

Don’t assume that if a habitat is not artificially managed that it’s simply a wild, untamed mess. Nature has it’s way of shaping the landscape and can appear surprisingly logical even in the harshest of environments. Consider the impact wild animals, natural fires, weather, and competing plants will have on the appearance of the landscape.

The Difference Between Coniferous And Deciduous (And Why It Matters)

Deciduous or broadleaved trees grow their leaves during the spring and lose them during the winter. Coniferous trees grow needles and cones instead of leaves, which don’t shed seasonally.

The reason this matters is because whether your forest is coniferous or deciduous will impact the ecosystem around it. Generally, you’re not going to get a mixed woodland of coniferous trees and deciduous trees. In the UK especially, coniferous forests such as pine forests are specially cultivated for the purpose of growing pine trees, so anything else is out. More to the point, deciduous and coniferous trees prefer different soil types so they won’t grow together. Deciduous trees usually prefer fertile, well-drained soil , whereas coniferous trees grow in acidic, often sandy soil which is lower in fertility because coniferous trees do not drop their leaves and these aren’t rotting down into the soil to provide it with nutrients.

Obviously you shouldn’t go to intense scientific detail about why your fictional forest looks the way it does because that would be pain-stakingly boring. My point is, if you’ve described a scene where a pine tree by an oak tree because you like pine trees and oak trees, maybe reconsider.

Descriptors And Adjectives For Describing Trees

Here’s some adjectives to inspire you to write a compelling description of trees and forests. I’ve paired them with what I associate with coniferous forests and deciduous ones, but these words can easily be used for both in the right circumstances .

Example: Describing a deciduous forest as ‘dry’ and ‘harsh’ tells me that the forest is not in very good condition and is dying. A privately owned coniferous forest will be quiet, but a coniferous woodlot will be noisy and full of workers.

Remember to keep in mind the time of day and time of year. Here’s a great list of 35 words to describe a forest at different times of day.

Words For Undergrowth

Another major difference between deciduous and coniferous forests is what grows beneath the trees. Due to the low nutrients in the soil around coniferous trees, the forest floor tends to be sparse of bushes and plants. ‘Undergrowth’ is generally a term used when describing deciduous forests, however some of these words can be used for either.

What sort of plants are in the undergrowth? All sorts! The easiest way to brainstorm ideas is to think about what your forest needs to sustain itself.

Plants flower. Plants provide food. When describing your natural setting, remember that there are most likely going to be animals living in that setting. And animals need to eat.

But before you put any old flowering bush in your woodland, consider seasonality , location , and the condition of the environment. Is it mushroom season? Are the flowers blooming? Have the berries ripened? All of these questions will depend on what plants are growing in your setting.

Woodlands are my favourite habitat. They’re instinstically beautiful and complex and there’s always more going on inside them than you think. If you found this helpful, be sure to leave a like. I would also reccomend the article below.

Furthur Reading: The Seven Layers Of A Forest.

Do you love fiction?

Subscribe now to join a community of fiction lovers, literary nerds, and book worms. Don’t miss out – your next read awaits!

Type your email…

Or click anywhere outside of this pop-up to continue.

Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Subscribe Subscribed
Copy shortlink
Report this content
View post in Reader
Manage subscriptions
Collapse this bar

Writing Activities

105 Creative Writing Exercises To Get You Writing Again

You know that feeling when you just don’t feel like writing? Sometimes you can’t even get a word down on paper. It’s the most frustrating thing ever to a writer, especially when you’re working towards a deadline. The good news is that we have a list of 105 creative writing exercises to help you get motivated and start writing again!

What are creative writing exercises?

Creative writing exercises are short writing activities (normally around 10 minutes) designed to get you writing. The goal of these exercises is to give you the motivation to put words onto a blank paper. These words don’t need to be logical or meaningful, neither do they need to be grammatically correct or spelt correctly. The whole idea is to just get you writing something, anything. The end result of these quick creative writing exercises is normally a series of notes, bullet points or ramblings that you can, later on, use as inspiration for a bigger piece of writing such as a story or a poem.

Good creative writing exercises are short, quick and easy to complete. You shouldn’t need to think too much about your style of writing or how imaginative your notes are. Just write anything that comes to mind, and you’ll be on the road to improving your creative writing skills and beating writer’s block .

Use the generator below to get a random creative writing exercise idea:

List of 105+ Creative Writing Exercises

Here are over 105 creative writing exercises to give your brain a workout and help those creative juices flow again:

Set a timer for 60 seconds. Now write down as many words or phrases that come to mind at that moment.
Pick any colour you like. Now start your sentence with this colour. For example, Orange, the colour of my favourite top.
Open a book or dictionary on a random page. Pick a random word. You can close your eyes and slowly move your finger across the page. Now, write a paragraph with this random word in it. You can even use an online dictionary to get random words:

Create your own alphabet picture book or list. It can be A to Z of animals, food, monsters or anything else you like!
Using only the sense of smell, describe where you are right now.
Take a snack break. While eating your snack write down the exact taste of that food. The goal of this creative writing exercise is to make your readers savour this food as well.
Pick a random object in your room and write a short paragraph from its point of view. For example, how does your pencil feel? What if your lamp had feelings?
Describe your dream house. Where would you live one day? Is it huge or tiny?
Pick two different TV shows, movies or books that you like. Now swap the main character. What if Supergirl was in Twilight? What if SpongeBob SquarePants was in The Flash? Write a short scene using this character swap as inspiration.
What’s your favourite video game? Write at least 10 tips for playing this game.
Pick your favourite hobby or sport. Now pretend an alien has just landed on Earth and you need to teach it this hobby or sport. Write at least ten tips on how you would teach this alien.
Use a random image generator and write a paragraph about the first picture you see.

Write a letter to your favourite celebrity or character. What inspires you most about them? Can you think of a memorable moment where this person’s life affected yours? We have this helpful guide on writing a letter to your best friend for extra inspiration.
Write down at least 10 benefits of writing. This can help motivate you and beat writer’s block.
Complete this sentence in 10 different ways: Patrick waited for the school bus and…
Pick up a random book from your bookshelf and go to page 9. Find the ninth sentence on that page. Use this sentence as a story starter.
Create a character profile based on all the traits that you hate. It might help to list down all the traits first and then work on describing the character.
What is the scariest or most dangerous situation you have ever been in? Why was this situation scary? How did you cope at that moment?
Pretend that you’re a chat show host and you’re interviewing your favourite celebrity. Write down the script for this conversation.
Using extreme detail, write down what you have been doing for the past one hour today. Think about your thoughts, feelings and actions during this time.
Make a list of potential character names for your next story. You can use a fantasy name generator to help you.
Describe a futuristic setting. What do you think the world would look like in 100 years time?
Think about a recent argument you had with someone. Would you change anything about it? How would you resolve an argument in the future?
Describe a fantasy world. What kind of creatures live in this world? What is the climate like? What everyday challenges would a typical citizen of this world face? You can use this fantasy world name generator for inspiration.
At the flip of a switch, you turn into a dragon. What kind of dragon would you be? Describe your appearance, special abilities, likes and dislikes. You can use a dragon name generator to give yourself a cool dragon name.
Pick your favourite book or a famous story. Now change the point of view. For example, you could rewrite the fairytale , Cinderella. This time around, Prince Charming could be the main character. What do you think Prince Charming was doing, while Cinderella was cleaning the floors and getting ready for the ball?
Pick a random writing prompt and use it to write a short story. Check out this collection of over 300 writing prompts for kids to inspire you.
Write a shopping list for a famous character in history. Imagine if you were Albert Einstein’s assistant, what kind of things would he shop for on a weekly basis?
Create a fake advertisement poster for a random object that is near you right now. Your goal is to convince the reader to buy this object from you.
What is the worst (or most annoying) sound that you can imagine? Describe this sound in great detail, so your reader can understand the pain you feel when hearing this sound.
What is your favourite song at the moment? Pick one line from this song and describe a moment in your life that relates to this line.
You’re hosting an imaginary dinner party at your house. Create a list of people you would invite, and some party invites. Think about the theme of the dinner party, the food you will serve and entertainment for the evening.
You are waiting to see your dentist in the waiting room. Write down every thought you are having at this moment in time.
Make a list of your greatest fears. Try to think of at least three fears. Now write a short story about a character who is forced to confront one of these fears.
Create a ‘Wanted’ poster for a famous villain of your choice. Think about the crimes they have committed, and the reward you will give for having them caught.
Imagine you are a journalist for the ‘Imagine Forest Times’ newspaper. Your task is to get an exclusive interview with the most famous villain of all time. Pick a villain of your choice and interview them for your newspaper article. What questions would you ask them, and what would their responses be?
In a school playground, you see the school bully hurting a new kid. Write three short stories, one from each perspective in this scenario (The bully, the witness and the kid getting bullied).
You just won $10 million dollars. What would you spend this money on?
Pick a random animal, and research at least five interesting facts about this animal. Write a short story centred around one of these interesting facts.
Pick a global issue that you are passionate about. This could be climate change, black lives matters, women’s rights etc. Now create a campaign poster for this global issue.
Write an acrostic poem about an object near you right now (or even your own name). You could use a poetry idea generator to inspire you.
Imagine you are the head chef of a 5-star restaurant. Recently the business has slowed down. Your task is to come up with a brand-new menu to excite customers. Watch this video prompt on YouTube to inspire you.
What is your favourite food of all time? Imagine if this piece of food was alive, what would it say to you?
If life was one big musical, what would you be singing about right now? Write the lyrics of your song.
Create and describe the most ultimate villain of all time. What would their traits be? What would their past look like? Will they have any positive traits?
Complete this sentence in at least 10 different ways: Every time I look out of the window, I…
You have just made it into the local newspaper, but what for? Write down at least five potential newspaper headlines . Here’s an example, Local Boy Survives a Deadly Illness.
If you were a witch or a wizard, what would your specialist area be and why? You might want to use a Harry Potter name generator or a witch name generator for inspiration.
What is your favourite thing to do on a Saturday night? Write a short story centred around this activity.
Your main character has just received the following items: A highlighter, a red cap, a teddy bear and a fork. What would your character do with these items? Can you write a story using these items?
Create a timeline of your own life, from birth to this current moment. Think about the key events in your life, such as birthdays, graduations, weddings and so on. After you have done this, you can pick one key event from your life to write a story about.
Think of a famous book or movie you like. Rewrite a scene from this book or movie, where the main character is an outsider. They watch the key events play out, but have no role in the story. What would their actions be? How would they react?
Three very different characters have just won the lottery. Write a script for each character, as they reveal the big news to their best friend.
Write a day in the life story of three different characters. How does each character start their day? What do they do throughout the day? And how does their day end?
Write about the worst experience in your life so far. Think about a time when you were most upset or angry and describe it.
Imagine you’ve found a time machine in your house. What year would you travel to and why?
Describe your own superhero. Think about their appearance, special abilities and their superhero name. Will they have a secret identity? Who is their number one enemy?
What is your favourite country in the world? Research five fun facts about this country and use one to write a short story.
Set yourself at least three writing goals. This could be a good way to motivate yourself to write every day. For example, one goal might be to write at least 150 words a day.
Create a character description based on the one fact, three fiction rule. Think about one fact or truth about yourself. And then add in three fictional or fantasy elements. For example, your character could be the same age as you in real life, this is your one fact. And the three fictional elements could be they have the ability to fly, talk in over 100 different languages and have green skin.
Describe the perfect person. What traits would they have? Think about their appearance, their interests and their dislikes.
Keep a daily journal or diary. This is a great way to keep writing every day. There are lots of things you can write about in your journal, such as you can write about the ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ of your day. Think about anything that inspired you or anything that upset you, or just write anything that comes to mind at the moment.
Write a book review or a movie review. If you’re lost for inspiration, just watch a random movie or read any book that you can find. Then write a critical review on it. Think about the best parts of the book/movie and the worst parts. How would you improve the book or movie?
Write down a conversation between yourself. You can imagine talking to your younger self or future self (i.e. in 10 years’ time). What would you tell them? Are there any lessons you learned or warnings you need to give? Maybe you could talk about what your life is like now and compare it to their life?
Try writing some quick flash fiction stories . Flash fiction is normally around 500 words long, so try to stay within this limit.
Write a six-word story about something that happened to you today or yesterday. A six-word story is basically an entire story told in just six words. Take for example: “Another football game ruined by me.” or “A dog’s painting sold for millions.” – Six-word stories are similar to writing newspaper headlines. The goal is to summarise your story in just six words.
The most common monsters or creatures used in stories include vampires, werewolves , dragons, the bigfoot, sirens and the loch-ness monster. In a battle of intelligence, who do you think will win and why?
Think about an important event in your life that has happened so far, such as a birthday or the birth of a new sibling. Now using the 5 W’s and 1 H technique describe this event in great detail. The 5 W’s include: What, Who, Where, Why, When and the 1 H is: How. Ask yourself questions about the event, such as what exactly happened on that day? Who was there? Why was this event important? When and where did it happen? And finally, how did it make you feel?
Pretend to be someone else. Think about someone important in your life. Now put yourself into their shoes, and write a day in the life story about being them. What do you think they do on a daily basis? What situations would they encounter? How would they feel?
Complete this sentence in at least 10 different ways: I remember…
Write about your dream holiday. Where would you go? Who would you go with? And what kind of activities would you do?
Which one item in your house do you use the most? Is it the television, computer, mobile phone, the sofa or the microwave? Now write a story of how this item was invented. You might want to do some research online and use these ideas to build up your story.
In exactly 100 words, describe your bedroom. Try not to go over or under this word limit.
Make a top ten list of your favourite animals. Based on this list create your own animal fact file, where you provide fun facts about each animal in your list.
What is your favourite scene from a book or a movie? Write down this scene. Now rewrite the scene in a different genre, such as horror, comedy, drama etc.
Change the main character of a story you recently read into a villain. For example, you could take a popular fairytale such as Jack and the Beanstalk, but this time re-write the story to make Jack the villain of the tale.
Complete the following sentence in at least 10 different ways: Do you ever wonder…
What does your name mean? Research the meaning of your own name, or a name that interests you. Then use this as inspiration for your next story. For example, the name ‘Marty’ means “Servant Of Mars, God Of War”. This could make a good concept for a sci-fi story.
Make a list of three different types of heroes (or main characters) for potential future stories.
If someone gave you $10 dollars, what would you spend it on and why?
Describe the world’s most boring character in at least 100 words.
What is the biggest problem in the world today, and how can you help fix this issue?
Create your own travel brochure for your hometown. Think about why tourists might want to visit your hometown. What is your town’s history? What kind of activities can you do? You could even research some interesting facts.
Make a list of all your favourite moments or memories in your life. Now pick one to write a short story about.
Describe the scariest and ugliest monster you can imagine. You could even draw a picture of this monster with your description.
Write seven haikus, one for each colour of the rainbow. That’s red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
Imagine you are at the supermarket. Write down at least three funny scenarios that could happen to you at the supermarket. Use one for your next short story.
Imagine your main character is at home staring at a photograph. Write the saddest scene possible. Your goal is to make your reader cry when reading this scene.
What is happiness? In at least 150 words describe the feeling of happiness. You could use examples from your own life of when you felt happy.
Think of a recent nightmare you had and write down everything you can remember. Use this nightmare as inspiration for your next story.
Keep a dream journal. Every time you wake up in the middle of the night or early in the morning you can quickly jot down things that you remember from your dreams. These notes can then be used as inspiration for a short story.
Your main character is having a really bad day. Describe this bad day and the series of events they experience. What’s the worst thing that could happen to your character?
You find a box on your doorstep. You open this box and see the most amazing thing ever. Describe this amazing thing to your readers.
Make a list of at least five possible settings or locations for future stories. Remember to describe each setting in detail.
Think of something new you recently learned. Write this down. Now write a short story where your main character also learns the same thing.
Describe the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen in your whole life. Your goal is to amaze your readers with its beauty.
Make a list of things that make you happy or cheer you up. Try to think of at least five ideas. Now imagine living in a world where all these things were banned or against the law. Use this as inspiration for your next story.
Would you rather be rich and alone or poor and very popular? Write a story based on the lives of these two characters.
Imagine your main character is a Librarian. Write down at least three dark secrets they might have. Remember, the best secrets are always unexpected.
There’s a history behind everything. Describe the history of your house. How and when was your house built? Think about the land it was built on and the people that may have lived here long before you.
Imagine that you are the king or queen of a beautiful kingdom. Describe your kingdom in great detail. What kind of rules would you have? Would you be a kind ruler or an evil ruler of the kingdom?
Make a wish list of at least three objects you wish you owned right now. Now use these three items in your next story. At least one of them must be the main prop in the story.
Using nothing but the sense of taste, describe a nice Sunday afternoon at your house. Remember you can’t use your other senses (i.e see, hear, smell or touch) in this description.
What’s the worst pain you felt in your life? Describe this pain in great detail, so your readers can also feel it.
If you were lost on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere, what three must-have things would you pack and why?
Particpate in online writing challenges or contests. Here at Imagine Forest, we offer daily writing challenges with a new prompt added every day to inspire you. Check out our challenges section in the menu.

Do you have any more fun creative writing exercises to share? Let us know in the comments below!

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

Comments loading...

English and Creative Writing

Robert archambeau.

Professor of English Chair of English

Carla Arnell

Professor of English

Joshua Corey

Benjamin goluboff.

Visiting Assistant Professor of English

Davis Schneiderman

Krebs Provost and Dean of Faculty

Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies

Major in English

We offer two areas of concentration: the Writing Track and the Literature Track.

All majors learn how to read and interpret complex texts, how to relate one text to another and to a tradition, and how to read texts within historical and multicultural contexts. Majors who choose the writing track practice their craft with four targeted creative courses, including two intermediate workshops in topics such as fiction, new media writing, poetry, and environmental writing. We offer literature courses organized in various ways, focusing on historical periods, single authors, literary types, thematic issues, multicultural literature, and gender issues. Courses taken Pass-Fail may count towards the major or minor in English.

Requirements for the Major:

At least 10 credits

Literature Track

English 210: Gods, Monsters & Questing Humanity: Ancient and Medieval Literature
English 211: From Fairyland to Flying Islands: Renaissance to Enlightenment English Literature
English 212: Romantics, Rebels, and Bohemians: English Literature in the Long 19th Century
English 203: Early American Literature
English 204: Diverse Voices of Nineteenth-Century United States Literature
English 216: African American Literature 1
English 316: Voices of Reform: Nineteenth-Century African American Writings
English 205: Diverse Voices of Twentieth-Century United States Literature
English 206: United States Environmental Literature
English 214: James Baldwin
English 217: African American Literature II
English 219: Malcolm & Martin: The Literature of Peace & Resistance
English 224: Special Studies: Literature of the Vietnam War
English 228: Women Writing Women
English 238: Literature/Culture in the Age of AI
English 250: Contemporary Literature
English 264: The Beat Generation: Influences and Legacy
English 266: Reading the American Graphic Novel
English 326: Postmodernism
English 327: 21st Century Black Authors
English 220: Shakespeare
English 303: Psychics, Spiritualists, and Mystics: Adventures in Edwardian Fiction
English 304: The Romantic Period
English 305: Victorian Literature
English 306: Happiness and the 19th Century Novel
English 309: Deceit and Desire in Chaucer’s Fiction
English 310: The Arthurian Tradition
English 321: Modern Fiction
English 336: British Women Writers
English 341: Existentialism and the Modern Novel
English 346: Jewish-American Literature
English 347: Modernist Masters of Consciousness: Woolf, Joyce, Beckett
English 380: J.R.R. Tolkien and the Literature of the Inklings
English 403: Emily Dickinson
English 404: W.B. Yeats
At least 2 electives in English not including English 100 or English 101. Only one of these may be at the 100-level.
English 450: Theory of Literature to complete the Senior Studies Requirement (A senior thesis may be undertaken by approval of the Chair, but cannot be completed in lieu of the senior seminar.)

Writing Track

English 216: African American Literature I
English 135: Creative Writing (formerly English 235)
English 243: Vampires & Villains: Writing Literary Horror
English 244: Writing Science Fiction
English 245: Novel Writing Boot Camp
English 246: Memoir Writing Boot Camp
English 248: Tales of Murder and Mystery: Writing Detective Fiction
English 269: Writing Fantasy: Fantasy Worlds and How to Build Them
English 280: Slam Poetry and Spoken Word
English 342 / Theater 370 Playwriting
English 360: Fiction Writing
English 361: Poetry Writing
English 362: New Media/Electronic Writing
English 364: Creative Unwriting and Remix Workshop
English 365: Poetry and Nature
English 367: Environmental Writing
English 368: Advanced Nonfiction Writing
English 369: Professional Writing in the Digital Age
English 370: Emoji and Image Writing Workshop
English 392: Publishing Practicum
Any English course at the 300 level or above, or English 220. English 440 and English 450 do not count for this requirement
English 440: Advanced Writing Seminar/Tutorial: Re-Writing Chicago to complete the Senior Studies Requirement (A senior thesis may be undertaken by approval of the Chair, but cannot be completed in lieu of the senior seminar.)

Requirements for the Minor:

At least 6 credits

English 212: Romantics, Rebels, and Bohemians: English Literature in the Long 19th Century (prerequisite English 210 and 211)
3 electives in English not including English 100 or English 101

Learning Outcomes

The expected Student Learning Outcomes for the English Literature Department are:

1. The English Literature major will be able to read and interpret complex texts and relate one text to another and to a tradition.

2. The English Literature major will be able to explain the historical and multicultural contexts of a variety of literature.

3. The English Literature major will be able to express ideas well in writing, identify the context and purpose of a writing assignment, develop interpretive ideas, adapt to conventions of discipline and genre, use reasoning and evidence to develop arguments, and master the fundamentals of English syntax and mechanics.

The expected Student Learning Outcomes for the English Writing Department are:

1. The English Writing major will be able to read and interpret complex texts and relate one text to another and to a tradition, as well as produce their own creative works informed by these interpretations.

2. The English Writing major will be able to explain the historical, formal, and ideological contexts of a variety of creative literature.

3. The English Writing major will be able to express ideas well in writing by identifying the context and purpose of a writing assignment, developing creative ideas, adapting to or experimenting with conventions of discipline and genre, and mastering the fundamentals of English syntax and mechanics.

English and Creative Writing Courses

Engl 101: writing tutorial.

An expository writing course for students identified by the Director of Writing Programs. Does not apply toward the major. Not open to upperclass students. (Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 110: Literary Studies

Designed to introduce prospective majors to English studies. Primarily for first-year students but also for others who wish to acquire useful skills as readers and writers by developing critical abilities in studying literature. This course offers students an introduction to specific subject areas in the literary canon and contemporary texts. (Counts as an elective for the English major, Literature Track. ) (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Writing requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 111: Intro to Prof Writing

(Introduction to Professional Writing) This course introduces students to the kind of writing they may encounter in the work world by exploring the rhetorical principles, writing strategies, and information-mapping practices necessary for producing organized, readable documents - from traditional print business letters and reports to email correspondence and social-media text. This course will provide the tools to effectively gather and refine information, organize it in reader-friendly fashion, and adapt it for the appropriate audience and genre. Students will also hone an economical, direct prose style, which is standard for effective professional writing. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Writing requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 112: Intro to Editing and Publishing

Introduction to Editing and Publishing. Designed to introduce students to the sorts of questions that arise in contemporary publishing. Primarily for students who wish to acquire useful skills as editors and writers for both campus and professional publications, including print and electronic magazines, journals, or books. Among the topics covered in this course: editorial workflow; copyediting, fact checking, and proofreading; contracts and copyright; working with authors; and marketing and publicity. In order to best use these practical skills, we also look at the differences implicit in various publishing environments (including print and electronic) and the fundamental relationships between author and audience that determine the shape of the text. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Writing requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 135: Creative Writing

A beginning course in the art of writing fiction, poetry, and nonfiction prose. Literary analysis will be combined with creative assignments. Group discussions and individual conferences. (Not open to students who have completed English 235.) (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Creative & Performing Arts requirement.)

ENGL 140: Stories of Resiliency

Imaginative literature from many cultures documents challenges to the individual's personal resiliency. Whether these challenges come from antagonists, from the social norms of the community, or from nature itself, writers of poetry, drama, and fiction have studied the ways people have met, or failed to meet, challenges to their lives, wellbeing, and sanity. Focusing chiefly on American literature from the nineteenth and twentieth century, this course will engage students in discussion of resiliency struggles as they have been framed by the imaginations of great writers. This online course will research activities, threaded interactive discussion, video mini-lectures, and group projects. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 180: Religion, SciFi, and Fantasy

(Religion, Science Fiction, Fantasy) Of the literary genres, perhaps science fiction and fantasy best allow creative artists to imagine real and possible answers to the deep religious questions that have historically driven philosophers, theologians, and thinkers. Who are we? What do we want? Where did we come from? How does everything end? What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything? In this class we examine science fiction and fantasy short stories, motion pictures, novels, and television programs to ask how creative artists and wider society have asked and answered these questions. We also consider how science fiction and fantasy have commented on and mirrored real-world religions. No prerequisites. Intended for first-year students and sophomores only. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: RELG 180

ENGL 200: Tusitala

ENGL 200 is a practicum designed to give students an opportunity to learn about the design and production of a literary journal while earning course credit. The 0.25 credit course is graded on a Pass-Fail basis and requires enrolled students to complete forty (40) hours of work as Executive Board members contributing to the editing, production, and promotion of Tusitala, Lake Forest College's literary journal since 1935. The course is overseen by the faculty advisor for Tusitala, who will arrange for grade/credit assignments in consultation with the chair of the English Department. No prerequisites. Only one full credit (four semesters of ENGL 200) may be counted toward Lake Forest College graduation. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Creative & Performing Arts requirement.)

ENGL 201: Modern Fantasy Fiction

Magic, mystery, and the marvels of time travel. Talking cats and stranded princesses. Web-footed women and enchanted forests. If you thought you left all of that excitement behind with your childhood fairy tales, think again. Many modern fiction writers have turned more and more to the resources of fantasy literature as a fresh way to explore serious ideas for an adult audience. Seeking both to teach and delight, modern fantasy writers re-angle old fairy tales or invent their own enchanted tales to prod contemporary readers out of conventional ways of thinking and acting, using space and time flexibly to challenge ethical, political, and religious beliefs - indeed, our basic understanding of nature, society and self. In this course, we read the delightful and instructively irreverent fantasies of several important modern fiction writers. In doing so, we try to evaluate the nature of each writer's fictional innovations as well as the serious purposes each writer may have in mind for his or her fantasy. In short, we try to understand some of the many possibilities and uses of enchantment in modern fiction. Authors to be read may include Carroll, Chesterton, Mirrlees, Woolf, Lewis, Tolkien, Malamud, Beagle, LeGuin, Calvino, Rowling, Rushdie, Winterson, Okri, Pullman. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 202: The Bible as Literature

The Bible—a multi-authored, multi-faceted, and multi-vocal ancient text, which has continued to be printed at a rate of over 100 million copies a year many centuries after its first compilation—is considered by many to be the most influential text in Western literature. This course will introduce students to the Bible—the Hebrew Bible and Christian Scriptures (Old and New Testament)—as a literary text in its own right, worthy of close reading and textual analysis. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: RELG 202

ENGL 203: Early American Literature

A survey of early American literature including Native American oral stories and trickster tales, Puritan literature, Smith and Pocahontas accounts, captivity narratives, voices of nationalism, early slave narratives, and women's letters. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: AMER 203

ENGL 204: Diverse Voices 19th-c U.S. Lit

(Diverse Voices of Nineteenth-Century United States Literature) Works of representative writers: Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Thoreau, Emerson, Whitman, Dickinson, and Twain. Topics of discussion include Emerson's influence on U.S. culture, developments in literary form, and themes of U.S. community and nature. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Writing requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: AMER 204

ENGL 205: Diverse Voices 20th-c U.S. Lit

(Diverse Voices of Twentieth-Century United States Literature) Works of diverse writers: Baldwin, Eliot, Hurston, and Frost. Topics of discussion include major traditions and schools of U.S. literature: realism, modernism, naturalism as they address questions of modernity. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Writing requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: AMER 205

ENGL 206: U.S. Environmental Literature

(United States Environmental Literature) An historically organized survey of the various rhetoric through which nature has been imagined by writers from the Puritans to contemporaries: the Calvinist fallen landscape, the rational continent of the American Enlightenment, conservation and 'wise use,' preservation and biodiversity. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: AMER 206, ES 206

ENGL 208: India and the Writer's Eye

India is the world's largest democracy and has more English-speakers than any other country in the world except the United States. It should not be surprising, then, that Indian authors have produced a wealth of novels, short stories, and poems written in English and concerned with issues of identity, nation, and history. In this course, we read English-language work by authors such as Rabindranath Tagore, R.K. Narayan, Salman Rushdie, Arundati Roy, and Amitav Ghosh; learn about the major historical and political events described in these works: the Opium Wars, Swadeshi, Independence, Partition, "the Emergency," the Naxalite movement; and read postcolonial theory to better understand and interpret these works. Students are be encouraged to explore relevant cultural, political, and aesthetic issues through research or creative projects of their own. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Global Perspectives requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities and Cultural Diversity requirements.) cross listed: ASIA 208

ENGL 209: Storytelling and STEM

(Storytelling and STEM: Writing About Science.) A writing-intensive course focused on using the tools of narrative nonfiction to communicate scientific discovery to the public. Students will read the work of scientists and scientific communicators such as Stephen Hawking, Rebecca Skloot, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Atul Gawande, and Steven Pinker to discover the storytelling principles they employ to inform and entertain their readers. We will explore the science of story, the cognitive and evolutionary source of its power, and the art of scientific journalism, and students will draft and workshop their own essays about "popular science." No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Writing requirements.)

ENGL 210: Gods, Monsters, & Questing Humanity

(Gods, Monsters & Questing Humanity: Ancient and Medieval Literature.) If you love stories of gods and demons, questing heroes and mythic monsters, you'll find a plethora of these fascinating figures in the great tales of ancient and medieval writers such as Homer, Sophocles, Virgil, Marie De France, Dante, Chaucer, and many more. This survey of ancient and medieval literature traces the origins of the Western literary tradition by exploring how writers from this delightfully distant period have imagined the gods, how they have understood themselves and their relationship to the cosmos, and how questing human beings have sought to answer problems of meaning and value that still have resonance for us today. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Global Perspectives requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 211: From Fairyland to Flying Islands

(From Fairyland to Flying Islands: Renaissance to Enlightenment English Literature.) This course explores British literature from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, an era of revolutionary new encounters, from discovered moons to newly-charted territories. Writers imagined the freeing power of "golden worlds" created by their verse just as experimental literary forms brought into being some of the most esteemed works of literature in Shakespeare's Globe and the newfangled "novels" of Swift and others. Yet it was also a time of profound tumult, from the stake-burning religious upheavals of the Reformation to the monarchical beheadings of the Civil War. How did the writers of the era make sense of both the discoveries and disruptions of their own time? What happens as we move from an "early modern" era into one that feels more distinctly "modern"? Making our way through some of the most well-known pieces of the era - Macbeth, Paradise Lost, and Gulliver's Travels - we explore how early writers shaped freedom and constraint, love and cruelty, and the discoveries of new worlds and crumbling texts. Prerequisite: English 210 or permission of instructor. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Global Perspectives requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 212: Romantics, Rebels, and Bohemians

(Romantics, Rebels, and Bohemians: English Literature in the Long 19th Century.) Change came more quickly, and more dramatically, to England during the long nineteenth century - the period between the French Revolution and the First World War - than in any era before or since. The growth of cities, of democracy, of women's rights, and of empire haunted the imagination, spawning images of rebel outsiders, dreams of art for art's sake, and some of the best monsters - Frankenstein's creature, Count Dracula, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde - in all of literature. We follow the evolution of England's imagination in this most turbulent age. The third course in the Classics of Literature sequence. Prerequisite: English 210 and English 211, or permission of instructor. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Global Perspectives requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 214: James Baldwin

In his powerful and moving novels and essays, James Baldwin confronted the lies America told itself about race, exposing the roots of social and political and cultural systems that superficially boasted of improving race relations but that instead continued to marginalize Black and brown bodies. This course offers a close reading of Baldwin's fiction and his essays, probing the ways that he provides a critique of the politics of race, sexuality, and nation in his own time and in ours. The course also includes readings and discussions of critical analyses of Baldwin's writings. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Domestic Pluralism and Writing requirements.) cross listed: AFAM 214

ENGL 215: Afrofuturism

What is a black future? The term "Afrofuturism" has been used to describe the recent cultural creations of black writers and artists who vividly envision futures of and for people of African descent. Afrofuturism, which aesthetic gained momentum in the work of science fiction authors Octavia Butler and Samuel R. Delany, as well as in the jazz and poetry of musician SunRa, and which can be found thriving in works like Black Panther, is the subject of inquiry for this course. This survey is an introduction to the literary works produced within the movement from its modern manifestations to its present-day expansions. In his landmark essay on the topic, Mark Dery asks, "Can a community whose past has been deliberately rubbed out, and whose energies have subsequently been consumed by the search for legible traces of its history, imagine possible futures?" The wealth of literary and artistic production of works in the aesthetic provides a diverse and emphatic "yes." This course seeks to position Afrofuturism as an alternative means of (re)interpretation, back-talk, and as an avenue for imagining a future in light of (and in spite of) the experiences of the past and present. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Domestic Pluralism requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities and Cultural Diversity requirements.) cross listed: AFAM 215

ENGL 216: African American Literature I

This course is an introduction to the writings of African-Americans before the Civil War. These diverse documents tell tales of faith, perseverance, rebellion, suffering, freedom, independence, cunning, and patriotism that are an integral part of the American literary canon. We read a collection of classics together, compare and contrast the voices represented, and consider the diversity of responses to finding oneself in chains in one of the most brutal forms of chattel slavery the world has ever known. Voices studied include Douglass, Wheatley, Jacobs, Brown, Wilson, Walker, Turner, and Thurman. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Domestic Pluralism and Writing requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities and Cultural Diversity requirements.) cross listed: AFAM 216, AMER 216

ENGL 217: African American Literature II

What does it mean to be a Problem? This course is a sister course to African-American Literature I, and will cover African-American literature written after the American Civil War. In this part of the one-year survey, we examine narrative attempts by African-American authors to define blackness and the black experience on their own terms in the period before, during, and after the Harlem Renaissance. We read a collection of classics together, compare and contrast the voices represented, and consider the development of African American literary self-representation in the century following Emancipation. Voices studied include Wells, Washington, Hughes, Johnson, Baldwin, and Morrison. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Domestic Pluralism and Writing requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities and Cultural Diversity requirements.) cross listed: AFAM 217, AMER 217

ENGL 219: Malcolm & Martin

(Malcolm & Martin: The Literature of Peace & Resistance.) Malcolm X (el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz) and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., two prominent leaders of the Civil Rights Movement so often put into conversation with each other, have left us a legacy for how we think about social struggle—whether it be through the message of non-violence and Christian love that Martin Luther King, Jr. preached, or through the message of fearless self-defense and resistance "by any means necessary" for which Malcolm X came to be known. Both leaders were prolific authors whose works, singular in style and rich in rhetoric, comprise a seminal part of the American literary canon, and have been regularly featured by authors of creative works in fiction, drama, poetry, etc. since their publication. This course is an opportunity to delve deeply into the words of both men, long considered the authors of two disparate ways of viewing and engaging in civic struggle in America. We look at the creative activist writings of each-speeches, letters, interviews, autobiographical material—and complicate what at first seems a simple battle between "violent" and "non-violent" approaches to liberation. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Domestic Pluralism requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities and Cultural Diversity requirements.) cross listed: RELG 219, AFAM 219

ENGL 220: Shakespeare

Selected plays to show Shakespeare's artistic development; intensive analysis of major plays. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Writing requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: THTR 236

ENGL 221: Literature and Medicine

Medical literature impacts everyone: we are all dual citizens of the kingdoms of health and sickness, of the everyday and the "night-side of life" as Susan Sontag puts it. Yet, throughout our varied stories about medicine, writers confront again and again the profound isolation and invisibility of the sick. What is it about physical pain that breaks down our language to describe it? How do medical narratives represent illness, giving structure and voice to this night-side of life? In this course, we explore medical texts by reading radically different writers across time, including Tolstoy, Shelley, and contemporary physicians. Throughout, we examine the myriad ways artists represent illness, through novels, poetry, short stories, autobiographies, films, guidebooks, and more. We work to unpack the binaries of sickness/health, normal/diseased, patient/doctor, and even life/death, in these stories about doctors, patients, epidemics, and mortality. After learning to "read" narratives of disease, students "write" disease, creating their own disease through an archive of texts. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 222: Plagues in Literature: Now and Then

Angelic hand prints splayed across plague bodies. Thrillers on futuristic, mutant viruses. Stories of plagues from past and present startle us with their imaginative variety. In fact, many readers have questioned why these narratives so often push the limits of the "real" in their representations. Why do writers represent plagues experimentally? Is contagion inherently dangerous to represent, even fictionally? We explore representations of epidemic diseases across a wide expanse of time, from antiquity to the 21st century, encountering along the way common tropes and stock figures of the genre: the plague-pits, enterprising tricksters, and well-poisoners, among others. Across varied stories, including Oedipus and Romeo and Juliet, we track how writers and film-makers use medical disasters to conjure the deepest spiritual crises of societies-gone-wrong, calling on the plague to search for divine meaning and patient zeroes. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Global Perspectives requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 224: Literature of the Vietnam War

This course examines the Vietnam War as refracted through various literary genres. The readings for the course include Graham Greene's The Quiet American, Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, and Truong Nhu Tang's Vietcong Memoir. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Global Perspectives requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities and Cultural Diversity requirements.) cross listed: AMER 224, ASIA 224

ENGL 225: Remixes in a Post-Burroughs World

This .5-credit seminar will explore the legacy of cut-ups, remix, and avant-culture strategies connected to the legacy of William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) and his collaborators. While the course will pay particular attention to the outsized influence of Burroughs in contemporary aesthetics, we will freely investigate cut-ups, mash-ups, remixes, dj culture, user-generated content, conceptual literature, crowdsourcing, social media, and related strategies in publishing and aesthetics that together produce a collaborative critique of Romantic definitions of authorship and genius. In these domains, we will cover everything from Girl Talk to "Auto-Tune the News" to Star Wars: Uncut to what's happening tomorrow, all through the lens of user-based textual interventions. Lecture, discussion, and appropriation-based responses in hard copy and digital forms. No prerequisites. Course begins on the first day of classes after mid-semester break. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 226: Introduction to Virtual Reality

(Introduction to Virtual Reality: Culture and Technology). In recent years, virtual reality technology has made major advances, making it possible to do things and go places that were previously impossible. In this course, we'll explore - through readings, discussion, and experiential learning in the Lake Forest College Virtual Space - some of VR experiences in areas including gaming, science, art, research, education, storytelling, and socializing. We'll look at the way culture has thought about VR in the last few decades in novels by authors such as William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, and Ernest Cline, and in film and television programs like Strange Days, eXistenZ, and Black Mirror. In all cases, we will focus on the way narrative storytelling is impacted by virtual culture. This class will give us a chance to think together about how space works differently in VR, how "real" VR experiences are and what the future of VR might hold. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Writing requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 228: Women Writing Women

This course surveys selected women writers, in diverse genres past and present, with a focus on American women writers in the 20th and 21st centuries. As we read selected literary texts, we explore how they "write women," in other words, how they deconstruct and reinvent the meanings of "woman" in their work. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Domestic Pluralism and Writing requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: AMER 228, GSWS 228

ENGL 229: Selfies and Drones

This .5-credit seminar will explore these two interrelated contemporary topics, with particular focus on ideas of automation and remote control. We will explore "drone" as an umbrella term not only for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), which run from children's toys to weapons of war, but also as technological "noise" that increasingly confronts us in our daily lives. In this, we will look to representation of automation in literature, in texts such as Galatea 2.2 by Richard Powers. Similarly, the "selfie" is not only the picture one takes on a smart phone, but also a current mode of representation that has significant literary and visual antecedents in portraiture and autobiography. Accordingly, course "texts" may include everything from The Picture of Dorian Gray, to a selfie stick, to industrial drone music, although the dominant lens of the course will be literary. No prerequisites. Course begins on the first day of classes after mid-semester break. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 230: World Performance I

This required course for theater majors provides a wide ranging and inclusive survey of the history of theater and performance from ancient Greece to the 17th century. It includes such developments as ancient Greek drama, Yoruba and Hopi ritual, Japanese noh drama, the medieval morality play, and the English high renaissance, culminating in Moliere’s Paris. In addition to in-depth study of plays, emphasis is placed on viewing ritual as performance, acting styles, production techniques, and the socio-political milieu that formed the foundation of the theater of each culture and period. Offered yearly. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Global Perspectives and Writing requirements.) cross listed: THTR 230

ENGL 231: Revenge and Justice in Literature

The dismemberments, squeaking ghosts, and poisoned pharmacies of literary revenges never cease to thrill and disgust audiences with their bittersweet paradoxes. How can we distinguish revengers from villains if their killings are virtually identical? Why does the sober promise of an eye-for-an-eye requital of one body for another become a frenzied massacre of innocents and not-so-innocents? Can justice ever be restored by going outside the law, or a lost past ever be re-found in a sordid present? In this course, we consider some of the central paradoxes and themes of revenge by reading radically-different writers from the first to twenty-first centuries, including Seneca, Shakespeare, Stephen King, and Gillian Flynn. All the while, we watch classic revenge flicks to explore how directors from Tarantino to Park Chan-wook translate these narratives onto the screen. Throughout, we examine the ever-changing meanings of revenge across culture and time. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Global Perspectives requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 232: Stories from the Spectrum

(Stories from the Spectrum: Neurodiversity, Health, and Medicine in Literature.) A boy with a penchant for prime numbers investigates the death of a dog. A young girl is scolded for failing to look her teacher in the eye. A man in the throes of a midlife crisis returns to his nonverbal son as he spiritually finds himself. Hidden within these narratives of neurodiverse characters, one discovers a slew of cultural assumptions about cognitive and intellectual disabilities. Do neurotypical writers often turn to autism reductively, as a stand-in for a theme or metaphor? What might an authentic representation of Autism Spectrum look like? This course considers the value of neurodiversity in literature while exploring many of the troubling representations of cognitive difference across time, from earlier accounts of un-speaking children to the "rain mans" of contemporary film. This course ultimately takes seriously the bi-directional intersections between fiction and medicine, as real-life medical practices both shape and are shaped by these stories from the spectrum. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Writing requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: NEUR 232

ENGL 233: Performance Art

This course will provide students with an understanding of performance art as a constantly evolving and flexible medium. The class will trace the emergence and development of performance art as a form of expression both distinct from and yet dependent upon traditional and experimental forms of theater and other contemporary manifestations of theatricality. Students will negotiate, through reading, research, discussion and planning and practical application, the blurred boundaries between performing and living, entertainment and art. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Creative & Performing Arts requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: THTR 224, ART 237

ENGL 234: World Performance II

This required course for theater majors examines the history of drama and theater from the late nineteenth-century plays of Ibsen and Chekhov up until the present day, with an emphasis on under-represented and marginalized voices. In addition to in-depth study of plays, this course explores the conventions of acting and stagecraft and cultural conditions that influenced each period's theater. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Domestic Pluralism and Writing requirements.) cross listed: THTR 231

ENGL 238: Literature/Culture in the Age of AI

This course explores representations of Artificial Intelligence in post-1900 American literature and culture. Students engage with various depictions of AI—from embodied androids and cyborgs to non-embodied computer systems and networked intelligence—and engage with relevant critical readings. The course examines how these texts reflect, critique, and speculate upon the evolving relationship between humans and AI. Key themes include the ethical implications of AI, the nature of consciousness/sentience in textual representation, the impact of AI technology on identity and society, and the potential for algorithmic bias and social control. Through a blend of textual analysis, class discussions, and research projects—as well as the student use of AI in their class projects to achieve the FFC Technology Tag—students critically examine how cultural texts mirror AI technology while influencing its development and perception.

ENGL 239: Shakespeare on Film

This course will focus on major cinematic adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, with attention both to the original texts and to the process of transferring them to the new medium by film directors. We will pay special attention to plays that have been filmed a number of times, so that we can develop useful comparisons: Richard III (Olivier, Loncraine), Romeo and Juliet (Zeffirelli, Luhrmann, Shakespeare in Love), Henry V (Olivier, Branagh), Hamlet (Olivier, Zeffirelli, Almereyda), and Macbeth (Polanski, Kurzel). Major goals will be to develop our ability to do close readings of both the original texts and the films, to do creative film adaptation projects, and to develop effective ways of expressing both our analytical and our creative ideas. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: THTR 240, CINE 240

ENGL 241: African American Drama & Theater

This course surveys the work African American theater artists from the nineteenth century to the present day. Playwrights surveyed may include Richardson, Hughes, Hansberry, Childress, Bullins, Baraka, Fuller, Wilson, Cleage, Shange, and Parks. Readings are supplemented by field trips to Chicago theaters that feature African American plays. (Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities and Cultural Diversity requirements.) cross listed: THTR 241, AFAM 241

ENGL 243: Writing Literary Horror

(Vampires & Villains: Writing Literary Horror) This course teaches the art of writing gothic and literary horror. We'll look at examples of the various elements of fiction as used in the genre - voice, character analysis, plot, narration, symbolism, point of view, and theme, with a primary focus on various ways to sustain and build suspense and use those as a model for our own creative work. The course will ask students to write short stories, participate in group workshops and discussion, attend individual conferences, and revise their work. Course reading may include: Edgar Allan Poe, Kelly Link, Shirley Jackson, Octavia Butler, Alvin Schwartz, Rosemary Timperley, Roald Dahl, Edith Wharton, Brian Evenson, Amelia Gray, Elizabeth Bowen, Blake Butler, Henry James, and Helen Oyeyemi. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Creative & Performing Arts requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 244: Writing Science Fiction

In this writing-intensive course, students explore the strange new worlds of science fiction and the possibilities of virtual reality. The roots of science fiction go back to 16th- and 17th-century writers like Thomas More, Margaret Cavendish, and John Milton, who confronted the onset of modernity with wildly extravagant utopian and cosmological imaginations. Science fiction since that time has often anticipated the developments of ever-accelerating technological transformation, asking critical questions about the nature of the human in the increasingly alien world we have created while addressing key questions of race, class, gender, and ability. Students in this course read works of classic and contemporary science fiction by such authors as Mary Shelley, H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, Ursula K. LeGuin, Octavia Butler, Kim Stanley Robinson, Philip K. Dick, J.G. Ballard, Kathy Acker, and Ted Chiang, while studying the techniques of world-building, character development, and plot that enable them to write their own science-fictional works. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 245: Novel Writing Boot Camp

An intensive course focusing on the craft of novel writing. Students will study the novel form and the possibilities and frameworks of different genres of fiction and hybrid prose. Students will draft their own novels and develop plans for completing their manuscripts and submitting them to publishers within the framework of the course. Group discussions and individual conferences. Prerequisites: None, though ENGL 135 is recommended. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Creative & Performing Arts requirement.)

ENGL 246: Memoir Writing Boot Camp

An intensive course focusing on the craft of memoir writing. Students will consider what it means to "write your memoir," by investigating questions of how to relate dialogue (if you didn't get it on tape), how to share your work with family members, and how to trust your own memory. We will explore the line between memoir and autobiographical fiction, and the course will incorporate literature, critical theory, and creative writing exercises to determine if an author can ever write a "true" story. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Creative & Performing Arts requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 248: Writing Detective Fiction

(Tales of Murder and Mystery: Writing Detective Fiction.) This workshop investigates the art and craft of writing detective fiction. We begin by examining the case of Edgar Allan Poe's "tales of ratiocination" and move on to putting Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes under the magnifying glass. We interrogate Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot and his "little gray cells," G.K. Chesterton's intuitive Father Brown, and Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled and laconic Philip Marlowe, as well as contemporary examples of fictional detectives. The goal is elementary, Watson: discovering what distinguishes the genre in terms of narrative elements such as character, tension, suspense, plot, and mood. Students are asked to file their reports primarily in the form of their own stories featuring their own detectives investigating crimes of their own choosing. This writing-intensive course features discussion and analysis of short stories and short novels, writing exercises, workshops, peer feedback, and revisions of student work. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Creative & Performing Arts requirement.)

ENGL 249: Brains, Minds, and Madness in Lit

(Brains, Minds, and Madness in Literature.) Stories invite us into the minds of others. As readers, we step into another's consciousness: into fictional memories, sensations, and narratives that feel real, as the words of often-dead writers become part of our own brain-matter. Yet, how do our theories of the mind and its operations relate to literary representations of a character's interiority? And what can contemporary neuroscience teach us about literature, or about our own minds on literature? In this course, we examine stories and theories of the mind across time, exploring scientific writing about the brain alongside literary masterpieces from Virginia Woolf to Vladimir Nabokov. Moreover, we consider the close connection between sanity and insanity, examining the representations of madness and other neurological ailments in brains gone "wrong." After learning to "read" the mind in literature, students will create their own aesthetic of the brain gone "right" or "wrong", creating narratives versed in the newest neuroscientific research on the pleasures and dangers of reading the "minds" of another. No Prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: NEUR 249

ENGL 250: Contemporary Literature

A study of contemporary literature in a variety of genres. Students read, discuss, and write about literature by living authors who have had a significant impact on contemporary literary culture, with an emphasis on historical developments, innovations in aesthetics, and the roles played by ethnicity, gender, nationalism, religion, and economics in the formation of literature. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 251: Grateful Dead and American Culture

More than fifty years after the band's founding, the Grateful Dead looms larger than ever. From Haight-Ashbury acid-testers to visionary entrepreneurs, the band that grew up and out of the revolutions of the tumultuous 1960s found a way to mix everything from roots music to free jazz to rock into an "endless tour" that put them in the Fortune 500. The Grateful Dead provided a cultural soundtrack for not only the 1960s, but also the paranoia of the Watergate years, the Reagan-soaked 1980s, and on to the jam-band present. This course will focus on the band's performance of authentic "Americanness" throughout its half century run. We'll listen to their music, and also to their fans, enthusiasts, and scholars. We'll understand the various subcultures that separate the sixties and now, and in doing so, offer answers to this key question: Why do the Dead survive? (Elective for English, Theater, and Music) (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: THTR 206, MUSC 222, AMER 202

ENGL 252: History & Literature of Great Lakes

(History and Literature of the Great Lakes.) The Great Lakes contain 21 percent of the world's surface fresh water. They provided a passage for exploration and still provide a passage for commerce. They are the reason Chicago exists. This course explores the history of the Great Lakes (geological, Native American, and modern) and the literature and art that arose from human interaction with these vast waters. In this interdisciplinary course we read geological and geographical descriptions, Native American literature, journals of early European explorers, poetry, short stories, and histories of social, economic, and environmental issues concerning the Great Lakes. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Writing requirements.) cross listed: ES 221

ENGL 256: Writing and The Law

This intermediate intensive writing course introduces students to substantive writing by merging basic composition with substantive content. The “and The Law” aspect of the course is the content: the law, in its most basic terms, is the mechanism for the peaceful resolution of human disputes. The machinery of the law is words, and in this course, students are instructed in methods of intermediate expository and persuasive writing, as well as a deeper understanding of genre. This instruction and practice would move them from basic academic form-focused composition to form+content composition. Students learn how to treat complex material in an accurate and thorough manner. The law, its foundation, evolution, and purpose all offer a powerful basis and rich material for students to understand how a social institution functions through written language. Through studying writings, and drafting their own various texts, students are able to better appreciate the importance of words, and the structure and format in which those words are presented.

ENGL 263: Nobel Laureates in Literature

This course surveys works of Nobel Laureates in Literature from the early twentieth century to the present day. Recipients of this award hail from all continents and their poems, plays, and prose present challenging responses to questions of class, culture, ethnicity, literature, and national origin. Central to this course is the examination of the differences between and the parallels of African, Asian, Latin American, and European writers in the aftermath of rapid (and often violent) political and social change. Readings are likely to include authors such as Alexievich, Coetzee, Kawabata, Milosz, Munro, Neruda, Paz, Soyinka, Tagore, Yan, and many others. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities and Cultural Diversity requirements.)

ENGL 264: The Beat Generation

(The Beat Generation: Influences and Legacy.) The core members of the group of writers known as the Beats- Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs- have had a profound influence on the development of postwar American literary and artistic culture. In this course students will be introduced to some of the Beats' major predecessors (notably William Blake, Walt Whitman, and William Carlos Williams) as well as writers whose work has brought the Beat legacy into the twenty-first century (Anne Waldman, Roberto Bola, Amiri Baraka, Eileen Myles, and others). Students will read these writers with an eye toward their contributions to such topics as LGBT rights, the environmental movement, the introduction of Buddhism and Eastern philosophy to the United States, and postmodern cut-up and sampling techniques. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Writing requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities and Cultural Diversity requirements.)

ENGL 265: Muggle & Magic: Rowling and Dahl

(Muggle & Magic: Reading J.K. Rowling and Roald Dahl) This course examines the work of J.K. Rowling and Roald Dahl. In reading Rowling's Harry Potter series and select Dahl novels like The Witches and Matilda, we will consider the transgressive and transformative power of children's imaginations- the serious work of mischief- in an adult world. As we engage with these fantastical texts and the criticism written about them, we will investigate themes like power and surveillance, purity and danger, abjection, and absurdity as well as formal elements like voice, plot, character, humor, and symbolism. Although we will discuss the importance of these texts for an audience of children and young adults, we will also consider their appeal for an adult readership. Students will be asked to produce analytical and imaginative work in response to our course texts. Potential assignments include reader response essays, book reviews, critiques or syntheses of scholarly articles, and creative exercises in character or plot development. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 266: The American Graphic Novel

(Reading the American Graphic Novel) This course will examine the theory and practice of the graphic novel in America in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The serial visual narrative, also known as the graphic novel or comic book, has had a formative influence on American literary and popular culture. Not all comics and graphic novels are written about superheroes; the form has proven flexible enough to encompass such genres as the memoir, historical narrative, and journalism. This course will have a particular focus on the work of such writer-artists as Marjane Satrapi, Alan Moore, Art Spiegelman, Alison Bechdel, Scott McCloud, Joe Sacco, Harvey Pekar, Robert Crumb, Chris Ware, John Lewis, Daniel Clowes, and Lynda Barry. Students will read and discuss these graphic narratives with an emphasis on how they make difficult or marginal content accessible to readers, and will have the opportunity to try their own hands at writing comics or a short graphic novel. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Writing requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: AMER 286

ENGL 267: BFFs: Female Friendship in Girls

(BFFs: Female Friendship in the Time of Girls.) "Besties" are found everywhere in contemporary anglophone fiction, television, and film. Usually placed behind romantic relationships, female friendship is now understood to be a powerful and even transformative dynamic, one that is central to female identity. Men and lovers take a back seat. Are BFFs taking over the usual unions of romantic or erotic love? How much are girlfriends the focus of these stories? In this course, we examine these contemporary representations of female friendship, from the four character "types" at the center of Sex and the City and Girls to the erotic and dangerous "besties" of Emma Cline's The Girls. We will examine how these "types" relate to, and part ways from, their literary predecessors, from Jane Austen to the present. Throughout, we discover the many sides of this complex, and contradictory, relationship. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities and Cultural Diversity requirements.)

ENGL 268: Goblins, Grandmas & Great Hearts

(Goblins, Great-Grandmothers & Great Hearts: MacDonald’s Fantasy Fiction) Step into the enchanting world of 19th-century Scottish author George MacDonald in this introduction to his fantasy fiction. MacDonald, a Christian pastor, popular public lecturer, and prolific writer, enormously influenced children’s literature, the fantasy fiction genre, and the literature of the Inklings (namely, C.S. Lewis and Tolkien). Through this course, students delve into his captivating narratives and explore the timeless themes that permeate his novels, fairy tales, and poetry. Stories to be explored range from his now-iconic fairy tale The Light Princess to complex, rich novels such as The Princess and the Goblin and Lilith, but students also examine his pastoral sermons, the scholarly literature about his work, and his impact on the Inklings and J.K Rowling. The course offers opportunity to research his distinctive, sometimes unorthodox Christian theological ideas, his female-centric ethical paradigms centered on great-grandmother archetypes, his mythopoetic technique, and the Victorian context of his work.

ENGL 269: Writing Fantasy

(Writing Fantasy: Fantasy Worlds and How to Build Them.) Fantastic fiction such as the Harry Potter series, Lord of the Rings, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland allows readers the illusion of escape. These works carry us on journeys to lands of myth and magic, stretching our imaginations and challenging us to reimagine the very foundations of our own world. Though fantasy embraces adventurous escapism, it is also a genre dependent on intricate world-building, rule-making, and a careful consideration of cultural systems and political hierarchies. In this writing and reading-intensive course, students seek to view our own world through the looking glass as they construct their own long-form fantasy project. Course reading may include classic and contemporary fantasy by such authors as Angela Carter, Lewis Carroll, H. Rider Haggard, J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, L. Frank Baum, Ursula K. Le Guin, Kelly Link, Neil Gaiman, Nnedi Okorafor, and Margaret Atwood. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Creative & Performing Arts requirement.)

ENGL 270: The Beatles

(The Beatles: Their Words, Their Legacy.) This course examines the lyrics and themes of The Beatles' songs and compares them to those of classical poems from the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. It explores The Beatles and their impact upon contemporary culture through their movies, concerts, and television appearances. It also includes analysis of their individual biographies, rare interviews, and critical essays about their works, and their profound influence on world literature, music, and current society. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 271: Writing Down the Songs

(Writing Down the Songs: Writing Music Criticism.) The course surveys the history of writing about popular music as a way of learning how to write critically about any genre of music. Students read essays from legendary writers such as Lester Bangs and Ellen Willis and others as models for writing about music. Students in the course write various forms of music criticism ranging from short reviews of singles and albums to longer reviews about albums and artists; they also learn how to conduct interviews with artists and how to write up the interview in a long-form feature article and how to write concert reviews. The course also covers practical issues such as how to pitch pieces to publications and how to get published. No prerequisites. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Writing requirements.)

ENGL 280: Slam Poetry and Spoken Word

This workshop course will combine the study of the history of spoken word and slam poetry performance with the practice of these traditions. Students will learn both the written and oral components of spoken word composition and performance, focusing on such the generation and revision of material, the varieties of performance style and oral delivery, and the relation of performer to audience. Generative exercises, small group workshops, collective feedback, and performance opportunities all form part of the curriculum. Chicago, a longstanding center of spoken word performance and the place where slam poetry was invented, provides many opportunities for field trips, conditions permitting. No pre-requisties. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Creative & Performing Arts and Speaking requirements.)

ENGL 285: Creative Arts Entrepreneurship

Creative Arts Entrepreneurship will offer an overview of the processes, practices, and decision-making activities that lead to the realization of our creative ideas. Students from across the humanities, arts, sciences, and business will learn the unique contexts and challenges of creative careers, with an emphasis on collaborative projects. The course will help students understand the nature and structure of arts enterprise while cultivating their own career vision and creative goals. Creative Arts Entrepreneurship is designed for students interested in developing, launching, or advancing innovative enterprises in arts, culture, and design, and those who love the initiative, ingenuity and excitement of putting creative ideas into action. The course combines readings and in-class discussions with site visits, case studies, guest lectures by working artists and creative professionals, and student-driven projects. No prerequisites. (Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: MUSC 285, ENTP 285, ART 285, THTR 285

ENGL 303: Psychics, Spiritualists & Mystics

(Psychics, Spiritualists, and Mystics: Adventures in Edwardian Fiction.) Early 20th C. England saw an explosion of spiritual seekers who wrote stories about contacting the dead, communicating telepathically, levitating, reading Tarot cards, experiencing ghostly visions, and participating in occult or spiritual societies. While these writers were enormously popular in their own day, they are historically underrepresented in conventional narratives about the canon of modern British literature. This course aims to recover some of these long-forgotten stories, as we sort through this Edwardian-era "attic" of dust-covered tales, seeking the gems that still puzzle, challenge, or inspire. Our goal will be to understand this "spiritual renaissance" and its prime movers; explore the ambiguous borderland between the occult and the mystical and their relation to orthodox religion; and assess the legacy that this original "alt lit" has left for today’s spiritual seekers. Fiction will be drawn from writers like George MacDonald, Arthur Conan Doyle, Marie Corelli, Evelyn Underhill, and May Sinclair. Prerequisite: ENGL 210 or permission of the instructor. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: RELG 303

ENGL 304: Romantic Period

Key works, both poetry and prose, of Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Lamb, Byron, Shelley, and Keats. Exploration of themes and ideas of a revolutionary era. Prerequisite: English 212. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Global Perspectives requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 305: Victorian Literature

Masterpieces of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry by Dickens, Tennyson, Browning, Carlyle, Arnold, Hardy, Wilde, and others. Prerequisite: English 212. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Global Perspectives requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 306: Happiness & the 19th C. Novel

(Happiness, Human Life, and the 19th Century Novel.) What constitutes human happiness? Biologists may offer their answers by asking why zebras don't get ulcers; psychologists by studying the psychological responses of lottery winners. But long before such scientific inquiries, nineteenth-century novelists sought to solve the problem of human happiness in their own way, pursuing a very old philosophical topic through nuanced narratives and gripping descriptions of fictional human lives: Emma's as she tries to engineer the happiness of her good friend, Pip's as he ventures into the high life of London, Dorothea's as she apes the life of an old-time saint, and Anna's as she tries to live out the romances she has absorbed from novels. In this course, we'll read some of the best novels of the nineteenth century, justly famous because they shed so much light on the good life. We'll ask how these novelists defined a life of full flourishing (eudaemonia), what brings human beings closer to or farther away from happiness, how these questions get embedded within nineteenth-century cultural concerns, and what the novel as a genre of imaginative literature can uniquely contribute to our understanding of the good life. Novelists will include Austen, Dickens, Eliot, and Tolstoy (who both influenced and was influenced by his British peers). Novels may also be paired with contemporary or classic nonfictional readings on the nature of human happiness. Prerequisite: Any 200-level English course or permission of instructor. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Writing requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 308: Murdoch: Truth, Beauty & Goodness

This course explores the oeuvre of one of the most important British novelists and moral philosophers of the twentieth century. Writing novels like philosophy and philosophy "novelistically," Murdoch plunges us into major twentieth-century intellectual debates to explore what it means to be good. We read her novels side by side with her philosophical work, paying special attention to how her early career was influenced by Sartre and Freud and her later writing by Dostoevsky, Plato, and Simone Weil, tracing her shift from Existentialism to mysticism. Novels may include An Unofficial Rose, A Fairly Honourable Defeat, The Nice and the Good, Message to the Planet, and The Green Knight. Other readings are drawn from Acastos: Two Platonic Dialogues, The Sovereignty of Good, The Fire and the Sun: Why Plato Banished the Artist, and Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals. Prerequisite: One English literature or Philosophy course. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 309: Deceit, Desire, Chaucerian Fiction

(Deceit and Desire in Chaucer's Fiction.) Travel back to the Middle Ages to study Chaucer's delightful tales of sex, deception, and disordered desire. In this course, students have a chance to read some of Chaucer's most famous Canterbury Tales, his riveting philosophical romance Troilus and Criseyde, and selections from the Legend of Good Women, which is his comical riff on the medieval saints' life tradition. In each case, we explore how problems of deceit or desire drive his tales and create a narrative framework for exploring provocative social, philosophical, religious, and even cosmological questions. Attention will also be paid to those medieval writers who influenced Chaucer, including Augustine, Boethius, Jean de Meun/Guillaume de Lorris, and, above all, his bawdy Italian inspiration, Boccaccio. Prerequisite: English 210. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Writing requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 310: The Arthurian Tradition

This course will explore the medieval tradition of Arthurian literature. The first half of the course will be devoted to the medieval roots of the Arthurian legend, from chronicle history to courtly romance, with readings ranging from Gildas to Malory. The second half of the course will consider the reception of this medieval mythic tradition by later British writers from the Renaissance to the present. Writers representing that tradition of medievalism might include Spenser, Tennyson, Morris, T.H. White, Murdoch, and Winterson, among others. Prerequisite: English 210. (Not open to students who have taken ENGL 300: Medieval Studies: The Arthurian Tradition.) (Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 312: Black Metropolis

(Black Metropolis: A Study of Black Life in Chicago.) This course is a study of race and urban life in Chicago. From the founding of Chicago by a black man to the participation of blacks in the rebuilding of the city following the Great Chicago fire, and into an exploration of Bronzeville, 'a city within a city,' this course will highlight blacks and their contributions to this great city. Study of landmark texts, documentaries, novels, and photography, along with at least one field trip to the Chicago area, will reveal the impact of the Great Migration on the city; contributions of talented musicians, writers, and photographers involved in the Chicago Renaissance; and the origins of the famous black Chicago newspaper, the Chicago Defender, including its regular column by Langston Hughes. (Under the old GEC, this course meets the Cultural Diversity requirement.) cross listed: AFAM 312, AMER 312

ENGL 316: Voices of Reform

A study of African American literature and theory published immediately before and following the Civil War. Readings will focus on identity (re)formation, social order, morality, Northern neo-slavery, institution building, women's rights. Authors will include Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Anna Julia Cooper, Harriet Wilson, Frances E.W. Harper, William Wells Brown, Sojourner Truth, Charles Chesnutt, and Frederick Douglass. English 216 is the prerequisite for first-year students and sophomores; no prerequisite for juniors and seniors. (Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities and Cultural Diversity requirements.)

ENGL 321: Modern Fiction

An exploration of modern fiction as it developed in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including such writers as Dostoevsky, Joyce, Lawrence, Kafka, and Hemingway. Prerequisite: any 200-level literature course. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Writing requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 326: Postmodernism

An interdisciplinary study of postmodernism as a literary and cultural phenomenon that redefines both local and global communities. The course will investigate aesthetic production during the post-WWII period by American and world writers and artists, with an additional focus on the theoretical basis of postmodernism. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Writing requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 327: New, Black, and Lit: 21st Century

(New, Black, and Lit: 21st Century Black Authors.) African American authors have responded in new and compelling ways to the dynamism of racial promise and constriction in the 21st century. These literary voices, often newly proliferate in the national cultural consciousness, are the subject of this course, which explores the works of Black authors writing after 2000 and will pay particular attention to works written in the post-Obama era. Texts considered include works by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jesmyn Ward, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Edwidge Danticat, Yaa Gyasi, Zadie Smith, Angie Thomas, Roxane Gay, and Jacqueline Woodson. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Domestic Pluralism requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: AFAM 327

ENGL 329: Advanced Publishing

This course provides students with hands-on experience in all stages of the editorial and publishing process from project selection to production to publicity as they develop print and online publications in coordination with campus organizations such as Lake Forest College Press / &NOW Books. The course permits students to work in small, entrepreneurial-focused groups as they explore traditional publishing areas as well as marketing, communication, web presentation/design, blogging, and social media. Prerequisite: One of the following: JOUR 120 (formerly COMM 120), ENGL 111, 112, 135, any 20th-century focused literature course, or permission of the instructor. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Writing requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 336: British Women Writers

This course will focus on British women novelists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Studying them within their historical and literary context, we will explore the following topics: 1) how women writers address questions of female authorship and authority, 2) how they define their female identity in relation to society, nature, and/or the divine, and 3) how they navigate economic, social, religious, and cultural constraints. British writers to be studied might include Jane Austen, Anne and Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Bowen, Iris Murdoch, A. S. Byatt, Jeanette Winterson, and Zadie Smith. Prerequisite: English 210, or permission of instructor. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Writing requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities and Cultural Diversity requirements.)

ENGL 341: Existentialism and the Modern Novel

Who am I? What is my place within the universe? Do human beings find or make meaning in their lives? Is meaning even possible in the face of life's absurdities? If so, what constitutes a meaningful life? This course explores these and other big existentialist questions through the lens of the novel, focusing especially on novelists from the nineteenth and twentieth century. Within the course, we compare and contrast major existentialist perspectives as well as examining significant critiques of existentialism. We also consider the unique possibilities afforded by the genre of the novel in exploring philosophical questions. Possible authors include Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Camus, and Murdoch. Other readings are drawn from shorter fiction by these and other writers as well as major nonfiction essays on existentialism. Prerequisite: A 200-level literature course or permission of the instructor. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Writing requirements. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: PHIL 341

ENGL 342: Playwriting

This course focuses on the collaboration between director, designers, and playwright in the creation and production of new works for the stage. Projects will include writing, script analysis, casting, and presentation of original student works and/or student-adapted works by professional authors. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Creative & Performing Arts requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: THTR 370

ENGL 346: Jewish-American Literature

An historically organized reading of Jewish-American writers from Mordecai Noah and Emma Lazarus to Jonathan Safran Foer and Nathan Englander, the course will consider themes of assimilation, tradition, capitalism, and anti-semitism in texts in English, as well as translations from Yiddish and perhaps Ladino. To what extent is Jewish-American literature an intact and coherent tradition? How have these texts registered a narrative of American history, and how have they defined, and perhaps reified, a version of Jewish-American identity? The chief texts of the class will be novels, but there will be readings in poetry and memoir as well. Prerequisite: English 204 or English 205 or permission of instructor. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Domestic Pluralism requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities and Cultural Diversity requirements.)

ENGL 347: Woolf Joyce Beckett

(Modernist Masters of Consciousness: Woolf, Joyce, Beckett). The modernist novel in English reached its apex in the twentieth century with the work of Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and Samuel Beckett, each of whom explored the minute movements of human consciousness in prose of unparalleled richness, complexity, and sometimes stark beauty. Woolf's writing, in both her fiction and nonfiction prose, was particularly concerned with the inner lives of women; Joyce developed his theory of the prose epiphany and found mythic underpinnings for stories of ordinary Irish life; Beckett's fiction and plays pursued the very limits of language itself. In this seminar-style course, students discuss the work of these three major authors and consider its implications for feminist thought, postcolonial theory, and psychology and cognitive science. Prerequisite: ENGL 212 or permission of the instructor. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities and Writing requirements.)

ENGL 360: Fiction Writing

An intermediate course in the craft of the short story. Group discussions and individual conferences. Prerequisite: English 135. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Creative & Performing Arts requirement.)

ENGL 361: Poetry Writing

An intermediate course in the craft of poetry. Group discussions and individual conferences. Prerequisite: English 135 or 235. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Creative & Performing Arts requirement.)

ENGL 364: Creative Unwriting & Remix Workshop

This intermediate writing course explores the principles behind a broad range of contemporary innovative writing methods and styles including remix, mash-up, conceptual, uncreation (a la Kenny Goldsmith), and cut-up techniques. The course starts from the principle that writers do not start with a blank page. Rather, all writing is created from the substance of preexisting artworks. For a generation more familiar with turntables and text messaging than the traditions of classical poetics, this course will explore the former in the context of the latter, offering a philosophical base from which to create, or uncreate, works that respond most deftly to contemporary aesthetics. Prerequisite: ENGL 235 or permission of the instructor. (Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 365: Poetry and Nature

This course explores the relationship between poetry and the natural world, from its roots in Classical Asian and European poetry to its postmodern manifestations. Understanding natural processes that served as inspiration and subject matter of nature poetry will enrich student understanding of the poem and the processes of both poetry writing and nature observation. Particular attention is paid to the poetry of William Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, and Robert Frost. Prerequisite: One 200-level English course or 200-level Environmental Studies course. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Creative & Performing Arts requirement.) cross listed: ES 365

ENGL 367: Environmental Writing

This course focuses on writing about the environment. Students will explore different approaches to the environmental essay, including adventure narrative, personal reflection, and natural history. Poetry and fiction will also play a role as we explore the practice of place-centered writing. We will also use the immediate surroundings of the Chicago area as an environment for our writing. Prerequisite: English 135/235 or a lower-level Environmental Studies course. Not open to students who have completed ENGL 332. (Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: ES 367

ENGL 368: Advanced Nonfiction Writing

An intermediate course in the craft of creative nonfiction that may include the memoir, personal essay, literary journalism, lyric essay, visual essay, and digital essay. Group discussions and individual conferences. Prerequisite: English 135. (Not open to students who have completed ENGL 330.) (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Creative & Performing Arts requirement.)

ENGL 369: Professional Writing

(Professional Writing in the Digital Age). This course will focus on the development of creative and effective digital personas for websites, resumes and blogs, with special emphasis on the application of these personas in publishing and literary-based careers. Writing these personas will prepare students for the larger post-baccalaureate world of applications, interviews, and career building. In a dedicated writing workshop environment, students will design and maintain a blog, establish and develop an online identity, construct a professional portfolio, practice job hunting, engage in the interview process, learn about grants and scholarships, and generally develop the public writing skills needed to enter the twenty-first century professional and publishing world. Prerequisites: English 111, English 135 or permission of instructor. (Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 370: Emoji and Image Writing Workshop

This intermediate writing course explores the role of the image in writing, with particular attention to the phenomenon of emoji and other image-based creative practices. Student will engage with the history of image/text production, starting with the pictorial/ideographic language histories of the ancient world; extending through medieval illuminated manuscripts, 20th- and 21st- century avant-garde practices, and landing in the present moment with the study of the history, development, and widespread adoption of emoji. The emoji section will find students exploring globalization through the Japanese origin of emoji, the history of emoticons and its antecedents in Victorian-era Morse code, and the computer science and AI-aspects of the technology. Student will read and produce innovative works as they integrate the pictorial into their writing. Prerequisite: ENGL 135 or permission of the instructor. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Creative & Performing Arts requirement.)

ENGL 380: J.R.R. Tolkien and the Inklings

(J.R.R. Tolkien and the Literature of the Inklings.) This seminar will examine the literary legacy of J.R.R. Tolkien and his fellow writers C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Owen Barfield - all pioneers of the twentieth-century fantasy fiction genre. This course will involve close reading of major works by each author as well as opportunity to discuss the fascinating biographical, historical, aesthetic, and mythic underpinnings of their works. The seminar will pay especial attention to the Inklings' intellectual and artistic indebtedness to the medieval past, to their discourses about religion, politics, and ethics, to their eccentric relationship with "literary modernism," and to the way their fiction refracts major twentieth-century events, particularly World Wars I and II. Prerequisite: ENGL 210 or permission of the instructor. (Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: RELG 380

ENGL 391: Tutorial

In this writing-intensive course, students exercise their interviewing, investigative and story-telling skills to produce a variety of magazine articles that will be posted - along with digital photos - on their own journalism blogs. Prerequisite: English 231 (Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 392: Publishing Practicum

(Publishing Practicum: Theory/Design Production) This practicum allows a student to study print and digital design through the completion of required readings, response papers (in electronic media), and weekly meetings with the supervising faculty member. Beyond this, the student engages in a practicum component of ten hours per week in Visual Communications as a supplement to the course's theoretical work. In this capacity, the student engages in targeted design projects that reinforce the academic aspects of the practicum. The student benefits from the professional mentoring of our graphic design staff, and uses the Adobe Design Suite, in preparation for a publishing-industry career. Readings may include The Books to Come by Alan Loney, and From Gutenberg to Opentype by Robin Dodd. Prerequisites: ENGL 112, ART 142, and either ENGL 323 or ENGL 324, and permission of instructor. (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Humanities requirement. Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 399: Inter-Text Journal

(Inter-Text Undergraduate Journal for Social Sciences and Humanities.) This course is a practicum aimed at engaging students in the process of scholarly peer-review, academic journal production, and print and digital publishing. Students learn how to use InDesign, an important software suite for visual communication. This 0.25 credit course is graded on a Pass-No Pass basis and requires enrolled students to complete forty (40) hours of work as Editorial Board members while contributing to the production and selection of feature essays, peer review, editing, layout and formatting of the journal, and release of the journal at the annual publication party. Inter-Text aims to publish exceptional student work and foster community among students inside and outside of the classroom in the humanities and social sciences. cross listed: HIST 399, POLS 399, ART 399

ENGL 403: Emily Dickinson

An advanced seminar on the poetry and letters of Emily Dickinson. Emphases on the cultural context of Dickinson's work and its critical reception. (Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.) cross listed: GSWS 403

ENGL 404: W. B. Yeats

William Butler Yeats, one of the most significant poets working in English, writes from a complex cultural situation. His work is deeply connected to Irish nationalism and its cultural manifestation, the Celtic Twilight, as well as to international literary modernism and to a deeply idiosyncratic mysticism. In this course we will study his poetry, prose, and dramatic works in the context of his life and in the context of the literary, cultural, and political movements of his time. In addition, we will read works by some of the writers Yeats influenced, and those who influenced his work, including Ezra Pound and J.M. Synge. Prerequisite: English 212. (Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

ENGL 440: Advanced Writing Seminar

An advanced course in which each student completes a Senior Writing Project (Under the Forester Fundamental Curriculum, this course meets the Creative & Performing Arts requirement.) cross listed: AMER 440

ENGL 450: Theory of Literature

Important critical modes and approaches to literature; an integrating experience for the senior major. (Under the old GEC, this course meets the Humanities requirement.)

College Catalog

Academic Calendar
Admission Information
Tuition and Fees
Financial Aid
Departments and Programs
Graduate Programs

Creative Writing

Creative writing minor.

The Creative Writing Minor offers students the opportunity to write in multiple literary genres such as fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, playwriting, and screenwriting. Our courses are designed to teach, cultivate, and inspire. Students are provided with an exciting range of coursework, from fundamentals of craft to advanced explorations of forms, techniques, and theory.

Creative writing courses are conducted in a unique workshop setting where students receive feedback from one another and the professor on their creative writing projects. Students experiment with writing exercises and respond to a diverse range of contemporary literature. Creative writing courses are taught by our faculty of award-winning fiction writers, poets, and literary nonfiction writers who are committed and innovative teachers as well as active and distinguished writers in their fields. The curriculum in creative writing courses is often linked to the English department’s popular Dillon Johnston Writers Reading Series , which brings visiting poets, fiction writers, and writers of creative nonfiction for literary readings and class visits with students.

Creative writing courses are open to minors and non-minors. Students who declare a Creative Writing Minor receive first preference in enrolling in creative writing courses in the English department during pre-registration periods.

Opportunities for students with a Creative Writing Minor include participation in the monthly Afternoon Salon: A Student Reading Series and the University’s student art and literary magazine, Three to Four Ounces . See below for more details. The Creative Writing Minor complements all major fields of study. Some students pursue graduate work in creative writing to write a first book and further prepare for careers in teaching, publishing, professional writing, and other fields that emphasize creativity and the literary arts. Our minors and master’s students who concentrate in creative writing have been admitted to top Master of Fine Arts (MFA) programs in creative writing, such as the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and to top PhD programs in creative writing, such as the one at the University of Denver. Faculty mentoring is provided to students who are interested in applying to MFA and PhD programs in creative writing. Download our Brochure for the Creative Writing Minor for more information.

For more information about the Creative Writing Minor, contact the Co-Directors of Creative Writing, Amy Catanzano and Joanna Ruocco.

Requirements

The Creative Writing Minor requires five courses (15 hours), including one 300-level literature course offered by the English department. The remaining four courses consist of creative writing workshops offered by the English department (poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction) or cross-listed with the minor (playwriting and screenwriting); at least two of these must be at the 300 level. While CRW 100 counts towards the minor for students who wish to take this course, it is not required. To enroll in a 300-level workshop, students must have taken a 200-level workshop.

English majors may earn a Creative Writing Minor by taking four creative writing courses (at least two at the 300 level) exclusive of courses used to complete the major.

Creative Writing (CRW) courses that fulfill the minor:

CRW 100 Introduction to Creative Writing CRW 285 Poetry Workshop CRW 286 Short Story Workshop CRW 287 Creative Nonfiction Workshop CRW 300 Topics in Creative Writing CRW 384 Playwriting CRW 385 Advanced Poetry Workshop CRW 386 Advanced Fiction Writing CRW 387 Advanced Literary Nonfiction Workshop

Electives that fulfill the minor:

COM 316 Screenwriting

Visit the English department’s Course Listings to see full descriptions of recent Creative Writing courses.

Creative Writing Faculty

Amy catanzano , mfa associate professor in creative writing (poetry) poet-in-residence co-director, creative writing program co-director, writers reading series.

Recipient of the PEN USA Literary Award in Poetry, the Noemi Press Book Award in Fiction, and the POL Prize in Poetry from Fordham University Press, Amy Catanzano publishes poetry and fiction, nonfiction prose, intergenre poetic theory, and multimodal literary art, including electronic literature. Writing in parallel to cutting-edge physics as well as the literary and artistic subcultures of the avant-garde, she forges innovative connections between literature, science, and the arts. In addition to her published books and transmedia projects, her work has been featured in literary journals such as Conjunctions and Denver Quarterly , in science-oriented publications such as APS Physics and Symmetry Magazine: Dimensions of Particle Physics, and in academic journals such as CounterText: A Journal for the Study of the Post-Literary . Anthologies and book collections featuring her work include The Dark Energy Survey: The Story of a Cosmological Experiment , published by World Scientific, and #Nodes: Entangling Science and Humanities, published by Intellect Press with editions in Spanish and English. Drawing from invited residencies and site visits to major scientific research centers such as CERN, and as the lead co-founder of The Entanglements Network —an international collective of transdisciplinary writers, scientists, artists, and scholars—she collaborates with scientists in addition to her independent projects. An associate professor of English and the poet-in-residence at Wake Forest University, she has a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Prior to Wake Forest, she taught in the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, co-founded by poets Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, and Diane di Prima at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, and elsewhere.

Eric Ekstrand , MFA Associate Teaching Professor, Writing

Eric Ekstrand is the author of Laodicea , recipient of the 2013 Omnidawn Books 1st/2nd Poetry Book Prize, selected by Donald Revell. His poems can be found in Poetry, jubilat, Indiana Review, Black Warrior Review, Catch Up, Bat City Review, and elsewhere. He was awarded a Ruth Lilly Fellowship by the Poetry Foundation in 2009 and has been the recipient of an Inprint/Brown Foundation Fellowship and a Houston Writing Fellowship. He was poetry editor for Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts from 2009 to 2010 and was the founding conference administrator for Boldface: A Conference for Emerging Writers. An Associate Teaching Professor at Wake Forest University, he teaches freshman writing and poetry workshops. His interests include modern and contemporary poetry, poetry writing, religious studies in literature and art, aesthetics, and practical pedagogy. He has a BA in English Literature from Wake Forest University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston.

Susan Harlan , PhD Professor

Susan Harlan’s writing tends to focus on the relationship between place, memory, and objects, and much of her work is about travel and home. Her essays have appeared in venues including The Guardian US, The Paris Review Daily, Guernica, Roads & Kingdoms, The Brooklyn Quarterly, The Morning News, Atlas Obscura, Public Books , and Nowhere , and her Literary Hub essay “How to Read Caves” was selected as a Notable Essay in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2019 . Her work combines memoir and cultural criticism, and she is interested in the everyday and the ordinary. In 2018, her book Luggage was published in the Bloomsbury series Object Lessons , which focuses on “the hidden lives of ordinary things.” She is currently at work on a nonfiction book about collecting entitled The Pyrex Menagerie, and Other Tales of Collectors and Our Things. She is also a humorist, and her humor writing has appeared in venues including McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Awl, The Toast, Queen Mob’s Tea House, The Hairpin, The Belladonna , and The Los Angeles Review of Books . Her satirical book Decorating a Room of One’s Own , a humorous mash-up of home design reportage and literary homes based on her column for The Toast, was published by Abrams in 2018.

Laura Mullen , MFA William R. Kenan Jr. Professor in the Humanities (Poetry)

Laura Mullen’s writing is alive to the shared work of meaning-making and attentive to the unseen and unsaid. “Mullen’s shapes shift, disappear like the living but remain like lives… turn into new solids, solidarities of moving, hard-edged lyric social work… against loneliness…” (Fred Moten). “Mullen sets up a site of fluid exchange between text and reader, an inter-subjective process that inflects affective communication with a subversive sense of contingency…” (Amy Moorman Robbins). Laura Mullen’s recent work has appeared in Fence , Court Green , The Bennington Review , Bettering American Poetry , and Interim , and her writing has been anthologized in collections from Norton, Wesleyan, and elsewhere. Her first book, The Surface , was a National Poetry Series selection, and her subsequent poetry collections and hybrid-genre works have been published by the University of California Press, Futurepoem, and Otis / Seismicity among other presses: her eighth collection, Complicated Grief , was published in 2015. A MacDowell and Karolyi Foundation Fellow, a featured poet at the International Poetry Festival in Taipei, a Rona Jaffe Award recipient and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, Mullen holds degrees from the University of Iowa and U.C. Berkeley. A CD of Jason Eckardt’s setting of her poem “The Distance (This)” is available from Mode records, and her collaboration with composer Nathan Davis—”a Sound uttered, a Silence crossed”—had its premiere at the University of California San Diego, and was performed at Notre Dame and Williams College. There is a video of the Notre Dame performance, with Third Coast Percussion, up on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/161604168. A collaboration ( Verge ) with the artist John David O’Brien is available in a limited edition, and her translation of Veronique Pittolo’s Hero was published by Black Square Editions in 2019. Her ninth collection, EtC, is forthcoming from Solid Objects press in New York.

Joanna Ruocco , PhD Associate Professor in Creative Writing (Fiction) Co-Director, Creative Writing Program Co-Director, Writers Reading Series

Joanna Ruocco’s books include The Mothering Coven (Ellipsis Press), Man’s Companions (Tarpaulin Sky Press), A Compendium of Domestic Incidents (Noemi Press), and Another Governess / The Least Blacksmith: A Diptych (FC2). A Compendium of Domestic Incidents won the 2009 Noemi Press Fiction Chapbook Contest judged by Rikki Ducornet, and Another Governess / The Least Blacksmith: A Diptych won the FC2 Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize, judged by Ben Marcus. She also works pseudonymously as Alessandra Shahbaz ( Ghazal in the Moonlight, Midnight Flame) and Toni Jones ( No Secrets in Spandex). Her stories have appeared in numerous literary journals including NOON , Conjunctions , The Black Warrior Review , Caketrain , Bidoun , Quarterly West , Western Humanities Review , The Fanzine , Marginalia , and Harp & Altar . Her work has also been included in several anthologies, including Dzanc Books’ Best of the Web, It’s Always Been a War: American Writers on Class, Pushcart Prize XXVIII, and The Force of What’s Possible : Writers on Accessibility & the Avant-Garde, forthcoming from Nightboat Books. She is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the innovative fiction publisher FC2 (Fiction Collective 2), which houses its editorial operations at Wake Forest, and co-edits the annual fiction journal Birkensnake with Brian Conn. She has an MFA in Literary Arts from Brown University and a PhD in Fiction from the University of Denver.

Elisabeth Whitehead , MFA Associate Teaching Professor, Writing

Elisabeth Whitehead has work in a chapbook sampler, A Third Instance (Instance Press, 2014), which also features poetry by Rosa Alcalá and Craig Watson. A second chapbook, a pilgrim’s traveling kit , was published by Cosa Nostra Editions in 2008 . Her poems have been published in literary journals such as American Letters & Commentary , Aufgabe , Black Warrior Review , Colorado Review , Denver Quarterly , jubilat , and Quarterly West . She was a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Helsinki, Finland. An Associate Teaching Professor at Wake Forest University, she teaches freshman writing and poetry workshops. She holds an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Eric G. Wilson , PhD Thomas H. Pritchard Professor of English

Eric G. Wilson is the author of numerous books, including Everyone Loves a Good Train Wreck: Why We Can’t Look Away (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux), My Business Is To Create: Blake’s Infinite Writing (University of Iowa Press, 2011), The Mercy of Eternity: A Memoir of Depression and Grace (Northwestern University Press, 2010), and Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2008), translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Croatian, Korean, Chinese, and Portuguese. Against Happiness appeared on the bestseller lists of the L.A. Times and the Calgary Herald , was featured on national and international media venues including NBC’s Today Show, UNC TV’s Bookwatch, TVO’s The Agenda, NPR’s All Things Considered and Talk of the Nation, the BBC’s Today Programme, and CBC’s The Current, and received coverage and reviews in Newsweek , the Chicago Tribune , the L.A. Times , the New York Times , The Globe and Mail , The Charlotte Observer , The Winston-Salem Journal , The Spectator, The Wall Street Journal , Booklist , Bookforum , the Globe and Mail , the Minneapolis Star Tribune , Playboy.com , Publisher’s Weekly , the Raleigh News and Observer , and America: The National Catholic Weekly . Additional books by Eric Wilson include The Strange World of David Lynch (Continuum, 2007), Secret Cinema: Gnostic Vision in Film (Continuum, 2006), The Melancholy Android: On the Psychology of Sacred Machines (State University of New York Press, 2006), Coleridge’s Melancholia (University Press of Florida, 2004), The Spiritual History of Ice (Palgrave Macmillan), Romantic Turbulence (Palgrave Macmillan, 2000), and Emerson’s Sublime Science (Palgrave Macmillan, 1999). The Thomas H. Pritchard Professor of English at Wake Forest University, he teaches British and American Romanticism, creative nonfiction, film and literature, and cultural studies. He has a PhD from the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

The Afternoon Salon: A Student Reading Series

On the last Thursday of each month of the semester (if holidays don’t conflict), the Creative Writing Program and the English Student Association hold a literary salon in the form of a student reading series in the A.R. Ammons lounge, A107 Tribble Hall. Up to ten students sign up to read their poetry, fiction, or essays on a first-come basis. Refreshments are served, and students socialize before and after the readings. This very popular event fosters the literary community across the Wake Forest campus and offers a supportive space for students to share their creative work. We encourage all Creative Writing minors to attend regularly and hope they bring along friends who are prospective minors. Look for upcoming Salon events on the Department Calendar .

Three to Four Ounces

Three to Four Ounces is the student art and literary magazine founded on the original Wake Forest campus in 1883, where it was first entitled The Student . The magazine has undergone many changes since its inception, including a name change in the early 1990s to Three to Four Ounces , but has continued to serve as a creative forum in the Wake Forest University community and the Department of English for student visual and literary arts. The magazine is published once a semester by the students of Wake Forest University. Art, poetry, and prose submissions are accepted from the student body and chosen for inclusion in the magazine through a blind selection process.

Comments are closed.

How has travel contributed to the ecological degradation of the planet? - Highlights - MICHAEL CRONIN The Creative Process · Arts, Culture & Society: Books, Film, Music, TV, Art, Writing, Creativity, Education, Environment, Th

Performing Arts

“The idea of a kind of inert world that is simply there for our pleasure, enjoyment, and exploitation has proved to be catastrophically mistaken because we see it with flooding, we see it with forest fires. We see it with acidification of the oceans. We see it with the continuing rise in temperatures that the world itself, the more-than-human world is fighting back. It has taken on its own agency. And therefore, the idea of a pyramid, a hierarchy, is no longer operative.”

Episode Website
More Episodes
Copyright 2019, The Creative Process · Podcast launched in 2019. It also contains interviews previously recorded for The Creative Process exhibition and educational initiative.

Reimagining Design with Nature: ecological urbanism in Moscow

Reflective Essay
Published: 10 September 2019
Volume 1 , pages 233–247, ( 2019 )

Cite this article

Brian Mark Evans ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1420-1682 1

977 Accesses

2 Citations

Explore all metrics

The twenty-first century is the era when populations of cities will exceed rural communities for the first time in human history. The population growth of cities in many countries, including those in transition from planned to market economies, is putting considerable strain on ecological and natural resources. This paper examines four central issues: (a) the challenges and opportunities presented through working in jurisdictions where there are no official or established methods in place to guide regional, ecological and landscape planning and design; (b) the experience of the author’s practice—Gillespies LLP—in addressing these challenges using techniques and methods inspired by McHarg in Design with Nature in the Russian Federation in the first decade of the twenty-first century; (c) the augmentation of methods derived from Design with Nature in reference to innovations in technology since its publication and the contribution that the art of landscape painters can make to landscape analysis and interpretation; and (d) the application of this experience to the international competition and colloquium for the expansion of Moscow. The text concludes with a comment on how the application of this learning and methodological development to landscape and ecological planning and design was judged to be a central tenant of the winning design. Finally, a concluding section reflects on lessons learned and conclusions drawn.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

The politics of designing with nature: reflections from New Orleans and Dhaka

Zachary Lamb

Acknowledgements

The landscape team from Gillespies Glasgow Studio (Steve Nelson, Graeme Pert, Joanne Walker, Rory Wilson and Chris Swan) led by the author and all our collaborators in the Capital Cities Planning Group.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Mackintosh School of Architecture, The Glasgow School of Art, 167 Renfrew Street, Glasgow, G3 6BY, UK

Brian Mark Evans

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brian Mark Evans .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Evans, B.M. Reimagining Design with Nature: ecological urbanism in Moscow. Socio Ecol Pract Res 1 , 233–247 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-019-00031-5

Download citation

Received : 17 March 2019

Accepted : 13 August 2019

Published : 10 September 2019

Issue Date : October 2019

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-019-00031-5

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Design With Nature
Find a journal
Publish with us
Track your research

IMAGES

Tips for Writing Forest Scenes
The Haunted Forest
Essay on Forest
Describe forest setting Creative Writing Planner Activity
Forest Lettering Letters From Trees Nature Typography Stock
Forest Writing Activity, Picture Prompts and Story Starters by Ms Artastic

VIDEO

Writing Forest on Earth 🌍🌲🌳🌴
वनों का महत्व
ASMR || Pixie interviews you (writing, forest ambience, personal attention, layered sounds)
Building a Log House in the Autumn Forest. A night by the river, surrounded by predators. #bushcraft
10 Lines Essay On Forest
Lp. Фантастические Приключения #3 Руда для квеста•майнкрафт

COMMENTS

35 Words to Describe a Forest Well in a Novel
01 Dark. One of the best words to describe a forest at night is dark. The word dark means there's little to no light, as you would expect from a forest in the night. Here's one way you can use the word dark to describe a forest: "When she emerged from the cabin, she found herself in a dark forest.".
How to Write a Forest Scene
Some words to describe a mossy green forest are: a deep green carpet; a sea of deep green plant life; a green habitat; spores engulfing the trees; full of moss; overgrown with moss; and moss-like growth. B. Write about the animals and the life that exist in this Forest. You can even make up your own and/ or it could be humans that live in the ...
Forest
Forest. - quotes and descriptions to inspire creative writing. A way into the balance of the forest ecosystem opened not as a door, but as an unfolding leaf, not to walk through, yet to bow in. Then comes the sense of immense life all around, each tree is an apartment block for billions of organisms, for communties, stood in well rooted calm ...
HOW TO LET A WALK IN THE FOREST INSPIRE YOUR WRITING
Writing requires the same kind of pauses and resting places. And a willingness not to step off the boardwalk, destroying the protected wetlands. A bog full of our doubts and fears also holds delicate blooms of rare insights we might otherwise miss. Writing asks us to be an observer, a philosopher, and a guardian of life.
Setting Description Entry: Forest
Setting is much more than just a backdrop, which is why choosing the right one and describing it well is so important. To help with this, we have expanded and integrated this thesaurus into our online library at One Stop For Writers.Each entry has been enhanced to include possible sources of conflict, people commonly found in these locales, and setting-specific notes and tips, and the ...
The Girl of the Forest
elfwood.com. The Girl of the Forest. The magic-filled forest lit up around the girl as she walked down the path. The air was filled with the humming and whizzing of fairies, spirits, and other mythical creatures flying about. The girl, while still human, had long silvery hair tinged with blue and the petite features of a woodland elf.
Setting Thesaurus Entry: Woods at Night
A new writing guide is coming! The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus, a companion to The Emotion Thesaurus, releases May 13th. Close Top Banner. ... There is a forest entry already, but I think that at night the woods can be an entirely different setting, full of mystery and sometimes fear. I figured it deserved its own entry!
How to Describe a Forest in a Story
A "thick" forest might be hard to navigate or even see through, and this might scare characters or make them feel like they're trapped. It's also easy to get lost in a "thick" forest. 4. Leafy Definition. Somewhere that has lots of plants and trees. Examples "The leafy forest was a paradise for the caterpillar."
Setting: FOREST
SIGHTS: Weathered trees rising out of the earth to brush against the sky. Sun-dappled leaves creating flickering shadows. Animal trails crisscrossing the undergrowth. Dead leaves and pine needles caught in furred clumps of moss. Fat mushroom-like tree burls. Moss climbing up trunks. Wisps of Old Man's Beard dripping off of dead spruce branches.
PDF Describing a Forest
3. The trees were the towers of the forest. METAPHOR 4. I heard a wildcat slinking away. ANIMAL SOUNDS 5. The morning stars shone like silver petals. THE STARS 6. Nuts were scattered on the floor of the forest. FOREST EDIBLES 7. We took the leaf-carpeted path home. OTHER IMAGES 8. The beauty of the forest comforted our hearts. SENSATION 9.
How To Describe Trees, Forests & Woodland In Fiction Writing
Forest. A large area covered chiefly with trees and undergrowth. Wood/Woods. An area of land, smaller than a forest, that is covered with growing trees. Grove. A small wood: a group of trees without underbrush. Orchard. A piece of enclosed land planted with fruit trees. Thickett.
26+ Creative Writing Tips for Beginners ️
Simple - Just create writing goals for yourself. Examples of writing goals might include, to write 100 words every day or to write 600 words by the end of next week. Whatever your goals make sure you can measure them easily. That way you'll know if you met them or not.
Create Your Own Story Online: Free Story Creator ️
Imagine Forest offers a seamless and user-friendly experience with the convenience of no registration required. We believe in breaking down barriers and making creative resources accessible to all. We provide a hassle-free environment for users to dive into the world of storytelling, writing challenges, and more.
Free Essay: The Forest
The Forest - Creative Writing. Descriptive Writing - The forest. [pic] A crisp winter morning and there was a frosty chill in the air. A sweet surrendering scent of the moist morning dew that cascades all around the sublime forest. The mixed cool autumn leaves from the tall trees lay scattered on the forest floor; they were in the motion of ...
105 Creative Writing Exercises: 10 Min Writing Exercises
Creative writing exercises are short writing activities (normally around 10 minutes) designed to get you writing. The goal of these exercises is to give you the motivation to put words onto a blank paper. These words don't need to be logical or meaningful, neither do they need to be grammatically correct or spelt correctly.
The Forest
The Forest - Creative Writing. Descriptive Writing - The forest. [pic] A crisp winter morning and there was a frosty chill in the air. A sweet surrendering scent of the moist morning dew that cascades all around the sublime forest. The mixed cool autumn leaves from the tall trees lay scattered on the forest floor; they were in the motion of ...
English and Creative Writing
3. The English Writing major will be able to express ideas well in writing by identifying the context and purpose of a writing assignment, developing creative ideas, adapting to or experimenting with conventions of discipline and genre, and mastering the fundamentals of English syntax and mechanics.
How Forest Helped Me Write a Book
1) A visual forest encouraged me to keep writing. As a visual person motivated by bullet journaling, whiteboards, and Post-it notes, I found that Forest fed my creative spirit. For every 20-minute bush I planted, I could pop out 300 words or spend time researching plot holes and building characters.
Creative Writing
The Creative Writing Minor offers students the opportunity to write in multiple literary genres such as fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, playwriting, and screenwriting. Our courses are designed to teach, cultivate, and inspire. Students are provided with an exciting range of coursework, from fundamentals of craft to advanced explorations ...
‎The Creative Process · Arts, Culture & Society: Books, Film, Music, TV
‎Show The Creative Process · Arts, Culture & Society: Books, Film, Music, TV, Art, Writing, Creativity, Education, Environment, Th, Ep How has travel contributed to the ecological degradation of the planet? - Highlights - MICHAEL CRONIN - Apr 2, 2024
Reimagining Design with Nature: ecological urbanism in Moscow
In 2003, a UK landscape studio was offered the opportunity to become involved in the design of a new settlement in the Moscow Region to carry out landscape planning and design (Figs. 1, 2a, b—Moscow in context). Gillespies LLP is a long-established practice of landscape architects, urban designers and environmental planners established in Glasgow, UK, in 1962 (Gillespies web link 2019).
[4K] Walking Streets Moscow. Moscow-City
Walking tour around Moscow-City.Thanks for watching!MY GEAR THAT I USEMinimalist Handheld SetupiPhone 11 128GB https://amzn.to/3zfqbboMic for Street https://...
18 UNMISSABLE Things to Do in Moscow (from a Local!)
13. Moskva City skyscrapers. Go to the Moscow International Business Center (also knowns as Moskva City) to see the city's beautiful landscape. Moscow city's complex of skyscrapers is beautiful by itself, but you can also go up one of the towers for a great overview of the city.
A new star on a new stage
On August 8, 2019, Let's Talk came back from a summer break to open its new season with an episode on the forest fires raging in Siberia. When asked why, given the two most widely covered stories of the summer — the fires and Moscow's election protests — her team chose the former, Shikhman responded, "I'm from Siberia.