What do you think?
Rate this book
The Forest
"...a hauntingly beautiful tale of growth, life, and rebirth, with poems as expansive and full of life as trees in a forest." – Hinnah Mian, award-winning poet and author to "To Build a Home"
"...a beautiful culmination of what it means to live, and dream, and be awoken to the ultimate becoming of someone in a world that aims to dismantle every piece of us." – Lyndsay Taylor, author to "Loving Me to Pieces"
The Forest, the first poetry collection from writer and artist T.C. Anderson, is the first part of an exploratory journey through the collective experience of literature and art. Assimilated with a fate-driven poetic method using handwritten phrases on paper slips, The Forest is a three-act journey that invites the reader into itself as it explores what it means to be human and how we live and exist.
The collection is the inspirational basis of an immersive visual and literary art installation of the same name currently being developed with Houston-based artist Mari Omori; the first iteration of the work, named after the book’s first act, The Branches, has been exhibited at Houston Community College and Lone Star College-Kingwood in their 2020 Virtual Faculty Art Show.
"...a beautiful culmination of what it means to live, and dream, and be awoken to the ultimate becoming of someone in a world that aims to dismantle every piece of us." – Lyndsay Taylor, author to "Loving Me to Pieces"
The Forest, the first poetry collection from writer and artist T.C. Anderson, is the first part of an exploratory journey through the collective experience of literature and art. Assimilated with a fate-driven poetic method using handwritten phrases on paper slips, The Forest is a three-act journey that invites the reader into itself as it explores what it means to be human and how we live and exist.
The collection is the inspirational basis of an immersive visual and literary art installation of the same name currently being developed with Houston-based artist Mari Omori; the first iteration of the work, named after the book’s first act, The Branches, has been exhibited at Houston Community College and Lone Star College-Kingwood in their 2020 Virtual Faculty Art Show.
- GenresPoetry
42 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 28, 2021
4 people want to read
About the author
T.C. Anderson
6 books8 followersT.C. Anderson is a writer and poet based in Houston, Texas, with work published in Sunday Mornings at the River,
Capsule Stories Isolation Edition
,
Pages Penned in Pandemic: A Collective
, The Raven Review, and more. Her short story, "Letter to the Boy at the Grocery Store," was the winner of Poetic Reveries's Christmas Short Story Competition in 2021. Her poetry collection,
The Forest
, was published by Riza Press in 2021 and will serve as the inspirational basis of an art installation with artist Mari Omori, debuting in 2022 in the Houston area.
Additionally, she is a multimedia artist whose collaborative video work has been shown in several Houston-area art galleries and self-portrait photography has been exhibited online, locally, and internationally in Singapore and Bangalore. Her current project with artist Mari Omori, The Forest, has manifested into its first iteration, The Branches, which was shown as a public art installation at Houston Community College in early 2020 and Lone Star College-Kingwood Fine Art Gallery in October 2020 as part of their Faculty Art Show. She is also a curator, having organized and managed several photography art exhibits for Lone Star College-Kingwood Fine Art Gallery, including Perspectives, which showcased the photographic works of the Perspective Photography student club's members in 2017; and citywide juried cellphone photography exhibition, 2020/vision, which has continued annually.
A graphic and multimedia design professional, T.C. has won numerous accolades for her design work, including gold and silver Medallion Awards from the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations (NCMPR). She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design & Media Arts from Southern New Hampshire University.
You can find more of her poetry work on Instagram at http://www.instagram.com/thetcanderson.
Additionally, she is a multimedia artist whose collaborative video work has been shown in several Houston-area art galleries and self-portrait photography has been exhibited online, locally, and internationally in Singapore and Bangalore. Her current project with artist Mari Omori, The Forest, has manifested into its first iteration, The Branches, which was shown as a public art installation at Houston Community College in early 2020 and Lone Star College-Kingwood Fine Art Gallery in October 2020 as part of their Faculty Art Show. She is also a curator, having organized and managed several photography art exhibits for Lone Star College-Kingwood Fine Art Gallery, including Perspectives, which showcased the photographic works of the Perspective Photography student club's members in 2017; and citywide juried cellphone photography exhibition, 2020/vision, which has continued annually.
A graphic and multimedia design professional, T.C. has won numerous accolades for her design work, including gold and silver Medallion Awards from the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations (NCMPR). She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design & Media Arts from Southern New Hampshire University.
You can find more of her poetry work on Instagram at http://www.instagram.com/thetcanderson.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 14, 2022
I have yet to read a poetry chapbook like t.c anderson’s “The Forest” which, so aptly and elegantly, combines free verse poetry, dramatic structure and criticism to raise awareness, protest against, and comment on the contemporary human condition. “The Forest” is a chapbook that expects you to get lost in it, like another explorer in the woods, and by using the poetry contained as a map, to get out. It’s a self-discovery journey in relation to your relations to others. And this is the reason why the poet’s work should be considered integral to 21st century Anglophone poetry.
We begin with the “Intro:”
Read me like a dictionary/of the life I once lived […] See these pages as they lay before you/ a forest of infinite stories,
and we proceed with Act I (the branches,) Act 22 (the forest,) and Act III (the roots) as if the poet gives us a blueprint of how to track down the vital pieces of an imaginary forest that has the power to liberate us from whatever burdens and concerns us.
What I’m arguing is that the chapbook is constructed in a way that reminds us of drama; for one, the pages that signify the transition from one act to the other are black, while the rest are white with some nature sketches on them. Thus, the poet wants us to think of her work either as another play where we’re all actors, playing roles, or she wants to use the Shakespearean universal simile of life being a play and humans being actors.
At the same time, the chapbook, because it’s organized this way, serves as a new form of narrative, as lots of ideas are woven together, that take into consideration feelings, nature, and even theological concepts such as God and the devil. “The Forest” is an experiment of multi-verses, of different images and thoughts brought together and this is why, ultimately, it’s a forest—for the branches and the roots all belong to different trees, some of which we know them and others we don’t.
It was a delightful read and I'm confident that andersons's poetry consitutes an integral part contemporary Anglophone poetry.
We begin with the “Intro:”
Read me like a dictionary/of the life I once lived […] See these pages as they lay before you/ a forest of infinite stories,
and we proceed with Act I (the branches,) Act 22 (the forest,) and Act III (the roots) as if the poet gives us a blueprint of how to track down the vital pieces of an imaginary forest that has the power to liberate us from whatever burdens and concerns us.
What I’m arguing is that the chapbook is constructed in a way that reminds us of drama; for one, the pages that signify the transition from one act to the other are black, while the rest are white with some nature sketches on them. Thus, the poet wants us to think of her work either as another play where we’re all actors, playing roles, or she wants to use the Shakespearean universal simile of life being a play and humans being actors.
At the same time, the chapbook, because it’s organized this way, serves as a new form of narrative, as lots of ideas are woven together, that take into consideration feelings, nature, and even theological concepts such as God and the devil. “The Forest” is an experiment of multi-verses, of different images and thoughts brought together and this is why, ultimately, it’s a forest—for the branches and the roots all belong to different trees, some of which we know them and others we don’t.
It was a delightful read and I'm confident that andersons's poetry consitutes an integral part contemporary Anglophone poetry.
January 23, 2022
Full of evocative imagery and a GORGEOUS interior, The Forest by T.C. Anderson delivers a haunting walk through the poetic woods of humanity, of longing and estrangement.
The Forest by T.C. Anderson is a 42 page collection of poetry and art. It has been split into three acts (the branches, the forest, and the roots), along with an introductory poem, which greets the reader and summarizes the road they're about to take. Many of the poems are accompanied by sketches of nature, and according to the author's bio, the collection was developed to accompany an art installation (also titled "The Forest") by Mari Omori.
Let me just start this off by saying that I'm about as tired as the next person of hearing reviewers rave "It's not just a poetry book, it's an ~*experience*~" over mediocre poetry. But, I ask you, how else am I supposed to describe this collection? It feels like fall; it feels like childhood in the woods and adulthood on early autumn sidewalks. It feels like fresh summer air from the only open window on a bus and the chill you get from a spring day turned unexpectedly cold. It feels like a lover who brings flowers home from work and a best friend you haven't texted in years (but you want to-- oh, you want to).
To start with something more concrete than just my synesthetic ramblings, the poetry inside is definitely not mediocre. There's a depth and sway to it that isn't present in lesser collections. The poems hit me deep inside myself, and I loved the way they were paired with sketches and interesting formatting. Also, I'm a sucker for white text on black backgrounds.
10/10 stars - a perfect book to read as the seasons change, preferably at home or your favorite cafe, with a gentle drink and New Constellations by Ryn Weaver playing in the background.
(Thank you to Readers' Favorite and the author for providing me with a free copy of the book in exchange for my honest review!)
The Forest by T.C. Anderson is a 42 page collection of poetry and art. It has been split into three acts (the branches, the forest, and the roots), along with an introductory poem, which greets the reader and summarizes the road they're about to take. Many of the poems are accompanied by sketches of nature, and according to the author's bio, the collection was developed to accompany an art installation (also titled "The Forest") by Mari Omori.
Let me just start this off by saying that I'm about as tired as the next person of hearing reviewers rave "It's not just a poetry book, it's an ~*experience*~" over mediocre poetry. But, I ask you, how else am I supposed to describe this collection? It feels like fall; it feels like childhood in the woods and adulthood on early autumn sidewalks. It feels like fresh summer air from the only open window on a bus and the chill you get from a spring day turned unexpectedly cold. It feels like a lover who brings flowers home from work and a best friend you haven't texted in years (but you want to-- oh, you want to).
To start with something more concrete than just my synesthetic ramblings, the poetry inside is definitely not mediocre. There's a depth and sway to it that isn't present in lesser collections. The poems hit me deep inside myself, and I loved the way they were paired with sketches and interesting formatting. Also, I'm a sucker for white text on black backgrounds.
10/10 stars - a perfect book to read as the seasons change, preferably at home or your favorite cafe, with a gentle drink and New Constellations by Ryn Weaver playing in the background.
(Thank you to Readers' Favorite and the author for providing me with a free copy of the book in exchange for my honest review!)
March 9, 2022
This is a truly beautiful and moving collections of poems. Reading it is like taking a slow walk through a forest and being only vaguely aware as around you time passes and dawn turns to twilight. The book itself is to be savoured in its own right with delicate illustrations and black pages interspersed between the more traditional white ones. The language is immediately accessible but invites us to pause and think about what it truly means with direct questions such as 'How have you fared in this weary world?/Are you really listening?' asked in the poem 'Fall in and Feel Free'. In 'Carry me Gently', T.C.Anderson says 'I'll rewrite the script and/live in my words'. While reading this volume, I did feel that I was living in and through and beyond the words.
All the works seemed so complete and perfectly formed in themselves so I was surprised at the end of the work where the poet said she'd worked with the creative process of pulling random, previously written phrases from a bowl and then arranging them into the poems. I am a fan of découpé but have rarely seen it put together so elegantly. It adds to my already high recommendation of this book as it is such an inspiring insight into the whole process of writing and what can be produced.
All the works seemed so complete and perfectly formed in themselves so I was surprised at the end of the work where the poet said she'd worked with the creative process of pulling random, previously written phrases from a bowl and then arranging them into the poems. I am a fan of découpé but have rarely seen it put together so elegantly. It adds to my already high recommendation of this book as it is such an inspiring insight into the whole process of writing and what can be produced.
July 30, 2021
Read it in a city park or private garden, student center or local library, coffee shop, or wherever your day takes you, and discover a new trail.
01000101 01001110 01001010 01001111 01011001
01000101 01001110 01001010 01001111 01011001
October 24, 2021
A nice eerie & electrifying read. Really enjoyed the layout and pace of the pieces.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews