Write ME: An Epistolary Poetry Project
When was the last time you wrote someone a letter? Or received one? When was the last time you truly communicated with someone you didn’t already know?
Letters are a vital ritual of connection, a communication that extends beyond the words or message themselves to encompass an entire range of sensory experiences.
An epistolary poem is a poem that is also a letter. The epistolary poem remains a powerful and captivating poetic form—and one that seems particularly crucial to our present moment, in which the intimacy, community-building, and grounding, physical aspects of letter writing can provide us with much-needed antidotes for social polarization and isolation.
With support from the MWPA, the Maine Arts Commission, The Telling Room, and many public libraries and organizations around Maine, and funding from the Academy of American Poets and the Mellon Foundation, Julia Bouwsma has created a Maine-wide epistolary poetry project that 1) introduces the form through a series of 20+ free public workshops across the state during the fall and early winter of 2024 and then 2) pairs up participating individuals as “poetry pen pals” to communicate with one another over a period of months. Simply put, this project will pair together people in different parts of Maine to exchange letter poems. This project is open to anyone who lives in Maine (or is connected to the state) and is ages 18 and up, with additional youth workshops happening through The Telling Room, the Monson Arts High School Program, and assorted Maine high school teachers .
How to Get Involved:
Please see below for details and to sign up for one (or more) of the 20+ free workshops in every county of Maine and online during October and November. If you missed the workshops, you can also watch the online workshop with Richard Blanco here.
Anyone 18+ is eligible to sign up to be paired with a poetry pen pal and exchange letter poems from December to April, 2025. Please click the signup button under the workshop listings below. The signup deadline is November 20. There are responses to frequently asked questions below as well.
Please stay tuned for a celebration of this project in 2025.
UPCOMING FREE POETRY WORKSHOPS
Write ME Epistolary Poetry Workshop with Richard Blanco
An ONLINE Poetry Workshop
For those who missed the chance to attend a workshop, this online session with Richard Blanco was recorded and is available for free!
Selected by President Obama as the fifth Presidential Inaugural Poet in U.S. history, Richard Blanco was the youngest, the first Latinx, immigrant, and gay person to serve in that role. In 2023, Blanco was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Biden from the National Endowment for the Humanities. His most recent collection, Homeland of My Body, reassess traditional notions of home as strictly a geographical, tangible place that merely exist outside us, but rather, within us. He has also authored the memoirs FOR ALL OF US, ONE TODAY: AN INAUGURAL POET’S JOURNEY and THE PRINCE OF LOS COCUYOS: A MIAMI CHILDHOOD. Currently, he serves as Education Ambassador for The Academy of American Poets and is an Associate Professor at Florida International University. In April 2022, Blanco was appointed the first-ever Poet Laureate of Miami-Dade County.
Sign up Deadline: December 10
Poetry Pen Pal FAQs
What is the goal of this project?
The goal of this project is to connect Mainers with one another through poetry. In a large state that contains many very different lived experiences, this project uses the poem-letter to help us learn to share, listen to, and connect with one another. The hope behind this project is that poetry might offer some antidote to the isolation and polarization that troubles our current moment.
Who is eligible to participate in the poetry pen pal exchange? Do I need to identify as a poet to participate in this project?
The general poetry pen pal exchange is open to anyone 18+ who is interested in participating, regardless of how much poetry writing experience you have. Please bring an open mind and a willingness to commit to the full four-month poetry pen pal exchange. We do ask that you be either a Maine resident or have a significant connection to Maine.
Can youth poets participate?
Youth poets are welcome to join any of the free WriteME epistolary poetry workshops, and we even have a special virtual youth workshop that will be co-led by former Portland Poet Laureate Maya Williams and Portland Youth Poet Laureate Yashu Derisala. For safety purposes, youth poetry pen pal exchanges will take place separately from the general exchange and will be conducted with the support of The Telling Room, the Monson Arts High School Program, and various classroom teachers. If you are a youth poet who is interested in participating, ask your teacher to contact us for more information.
Do I need to take one of the workshops in order to participate in the exchange?
No! The free public workshops are designed to build comfort with the idea of writing epistolary poetry and to create excitement around the project. You are very much encouraged to attend one (or more—each one is different!), but they are not a requirement for participation in the poetry pen pal exchange.
How long does the exchange go? How many poems am I expected to write?
The general poetry pen pal exchange will take place beginning in December and running through March. The goal will be for each participant to send at least 4 epistolary poems to their partner during this time. You will receive regular email reminders with optional prompts to help encourage and inspire your correspondence.
Where can I sign up? What’s the process?
Click the button above to sign up for a poetry pen pal. The sign up deadline is November 20. You will be matched with a poetry pen pal. The emphasis for this project is on creating exchanges across different lived experiences, so don’t be surprised if your pen pal is much older or younger or lives in a very different part of Maine. That’s the whole idea! By the first week in December, you will receive an email providing you with your poetry pen pal’s contact information.
Will the exchange take place through email or through postal mail?
When you register, you will have the option of selecting your preference for email, postal mail, or either. You will then be paired with someone who has compatible preferences.
What happens if my poetry pen pal doesn’t write back?
We really hope this won’t happen. And to minimize the likelihood of this happening, we do ask folks not to sign up if you don’t feel you are definitely able and ready to commit to the full winterlong (December through March) poetry pen pal exchange. However, we also know that life is life. So if it does happen, please send an email to director@mainewriters.org, and we will do our best to try to find you a new partner.
What happens after the poetry pen pal exchange is over?
There will be several events in the spring of 2025 to showcase to showcase the resulting poems, as well as to share participants’ experiences with the project. Those who sign up for the poetry pen pal exchange will receive word about planned events as the exchange progresses and will be offered opportunities to submit epistolary poems for possible inclusion in culminating events.
This program is made possible by the generous support of the Academy of American Poets and the Mellon Foundation. The Maine Arts Commission has provided additional collaboration and in-kind support, as well as funding for the pilot Write ME project in 2023.
