by Dylan Hogan April 2, 2026
Dr. Scott Foran has spent five years shaping young writers at 含羞草研究所, and he is stepping into a new role as director of the 含羞草研究所 Creative Writing Festival. This comes as Foran releases a new poetry collection,鈥�Mad as Birds, exploring how memory shapes us鈥攁nd what happens when it begins to slip away.
At the center of鈥�Mad as Birds鈥痠s a deeply personal subject. The collection draws on his encounters with family members who suffered from dementia, where conversations begin to repeat and awareness slowly fades. Rather than explain that experience directly, Foran turns to poetry as a way of expressing what can鈥檛 easily be said. 鈥淧oetry鈥� is just kind of a natural expression of my interactions with life,鈥� he said, noting that many of his works begin with personal moments before expanding into something more universal.
That expansion often happens through symbolism. Birds appear throughout the collection鈥�”crows, ravens, and owls鈥攆igures long associated with death, wisdom, and the unseen.鈥� Foran also draws from mythology, pointing to the Norse god Odin, whose two ravens represent thought and memory. In that story, it is memory鈥攏ot thought鈥攖hat is most at risk.
Foran didn鈥檛 begin as a poet. In fact, he admits he once avoided poetry altogether. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 understand it鈥� didn鈥檛 want anything to do with it,鈥� he said. It wasn鈥檛 until he started teaching literature that he began to see what poetry could do鈥攈ow it can hold meaning in layers rather than explain everything outright.
Across the collection, form plays a key role in meaning. Foran notes that structure鈥�”punctuation, lineation, even fragmentation鈥攊s meant to mirror the breakdown of thought itself.鈥�
That idea shapes both his writing and his teaching. Foran hopes that 鈥渟omeone might read a poem and recognize something they have felt but could not articulate.鈥� The collection, he said, is meant to help readers feel less isolated in their experiences and more understood.
奥颈迟丑鈥�Mad as Birds, that recognition comes through difficult territory鈥攎emory loss, fear, and the limits of control. But for Foran, that鈥檚 where poetry matters most鈥攏ot in solving problems, but in giving them form, and a weight that lingers after the poem ends.