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Tags: setting

Reimagining Place: Setting as Convergence

by

Matthew Sullivan

The Literary Life

September/October 2025

8.20.25

A novelist explores the craft of imagining a fictional setting based on a real-world location that holds a capacity for convergence, a place where many threads intersect and many stories are born.

Tags:

craft | setting

In the Shadow of a Homeplace: One Writer’s Life in Mississippi

by

Olufunke Ogundimu

The Literary Life

July/August 2025

6.18.25

Olufunke Ogundimu, a Black woman with braids coiled around her head, smiles slightly. She wears clear rimmed glasses, a blue and white striped shirt, and silver earrings. She stands against a gray brick wall.

A Nigerian professor and fiction writer describes how a new place like Starkville, Mississippi, becomes a home and how the color, texture, and form of her surroundings make their way into her storytelling.

Tags:

BIPOC writers | writing life | home | setting | immigrant writing

On Person and Place

by

Annell López

4.29.24

The author of I’ll Give You a Reason explores how setting shapes characters.

Tags:

setting | characters | Latinx | place

Falling in Love With Setting

by

Michelle Wildgen

9.11.23

The author of Wine People considers how a more expansive understanding of setting can deepen a story.

Tags:

writing life | writing practices | setting | place | characters

These Walls Won’t Stop Talking

by

Allegra Hyde

3.14.22

A white-tiled public bathroom wall covered in stickers.

The author of Eleutheria explores how setting can tell a story.

Tags:

setting | place | character | point of view | writing process

If a Tree Falls

by

Allegra Hyde

3.7.22

Low sunlight filters through the trees in a boreal forest.

The author of Eleutheria looks beyond the construct of man vs. nature.

Tags:

nature/environmental | ecology | conflict | plot | connection | setting | writing process

The Face in the Whirlpool

by

Allegra Hyde

2.28.22

Turbulent waters viewed from above. Rocks and seaweed give the appearance of a face in the water.

The author of Eleutheria considers the literary value of the human instinct to look for faces everywhere.

Tags:

nature/environmental | ecology | myth | science | setting | writing process

You Can Never Just Do One Thing

by

Allegra Hyde

2.21.22

A wide glass bottle filled with soil and small sprouts rests on a windowsill.

The author of Eleutheria uses ecological principles to guide her writing.

Tags:

nature/environmental | ecology | world building | character | setting | writing process

Craft Capsule: On Google Maps

by

Julia Sanches

11.29.21

A satellite image of the Canary Islands.

The translator of Migratory Birds and Permafrost uses Google Maps to immerse herself in the settings of her translation projects.

Tags:

setting | environment | nature/environmental | nature | weather | climate | travel | translation | research | writing process

Craft Capsule: The Edge of a Scene

by

Blair Hurley

9.20.21

View of a set for recording an interview. A single black fold-out chair sits on a slate gray paper floor and backdrop. A microphone at the end of a boom floats above the chair, and a bright overhead light illuminates the scene.

The author of The Devoted recommends looking around the edges of a story to locate the unexpected places and times where drama can unfold.

Tags:

time | setting | scene | conflict | expectations | reader experience | outsider | FOMO | writing process

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