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. We will be adding workshops as all of the details are confirmed.
Anyone 18+ is eligible to sign up to be paired with a poetry pen pal and exchange letter poems from December to April, 2025. More info coming soon!
Please stay tuned for a celebration of this project in 2025.
FREE POETRY WORKSHOPS
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.
