Where is Here? Inventing Impactful Settings in Fiction and Nonfiction

Setting isn’t only a backdrop and it doesn’t—necessarily—involve lengthy descriptions of plants and trees. It’s more akin to the air we breathe and, in some stories, the way we breathe it. Whether your story unfolds in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, an urban stockyard, a college campus or a quiet neighborhood, setting is a vital element. It shapes mood, deepens themes, and influences character. In this class, we’ll explore techniques that evoke atmosphere, integrate sensory details, and make setting an active part of the plot. Together we’ll analyze literary examples of iconic worlds and identify the elements that make them vivid and unforgettable. We’ll consider the scope of setting, by comparing stories whose drama sprawls across entire towns to those contained within a home’s four walls. We’ll consider how sensory details create mood, genre, and atmosphere. We’ll use the language of film, too, to think about framing place through long-shots and close-ups. This class welcomes both advanced and beginning writers. Whether you’re seeking inspiration for a new project or revising something old, this class will help you hone the contours of your fictional and nonfictional worlds.

About the teacher:

Jessica Alexander has taught creative writing workshops at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Franklin and Marshall College, Porchlight Literary Arts Center, The Fairweather Project, and The Iowa Summer Writing Festival, among other places. Her novella, None of This Is an Invitation (co-written with Katie Jean Shinkle) was published by Astrophil Press in summer 2023. Her story collection, Dear Enemy, was the winning manuscript in the 2016 Subito Prose Contest. Her collaborative memoir (co-written with Vi Khi Nao) That Woman Could Be You came out with BlazeVox in April 2022. Her novel, Agnes, We’re Not Murderers is forthcoming from Clash Books in 2026.

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Host or Publisher The Chattery