Dear Friends,

It used to drive my mother crazy, but I’ve always been a re-reader. Yes, of course, I see the point of reading new books and poems, listening to a new podcast episode, but often, I find something new in the familiar. In repetition. Now that I’ve spent time watching webinars and podcasts I realize here, too, repetition can be helpful—I need it for learning. 

These days, I don’t feel much like reading from my first book (and haven’t been, because I’m mostly done with the promotional part of publishing a book), but I recently came across a printout in my office of this poem, “Stay Home,” which I also included in one of the essays in This Is One Way to Dance. That essay, “Temporary Talismans,” is about writing postcards and epistolary friendships. I have a few friends I met at conferences or artist residencies. We never lived near each other. We got to know each other by writing. These friends are Holly, Wendy, and Michael. Also my friend Kitty, whom I have lived near sometimes, but not always. 

So here’s what I’m reading: a poem I already know. I want to share it with you:

“Stay Home”

I will wait here in the fields
to see how well the rain
brings on the grass.
In the labor of the fields
longer than a man’s life
I am at home. Don’t come with me.
You stay home too.
 

I will be standing in the woods
where the old trees
move only with the wind
and then with gravity.
In the stillness of the trees
I am at home. Don’t come with me.
You stay home too.

Wendell Berry’s poem seems particularly apt at this moment. I am home a lot these days. Many of us are home. It reminds me of how I grew up, without a lot of travel. Given the climate crisis and the pandemic, I also am thinking about the cost of travel. Are there other ways to travel? Writing and reading have always been about travel for me. I am still writing postcards, sending packages and occasional cards and letters. I still prop postcards on the computer monitor, on my bookshelves, and tuck them into books I’m reading. 

My friend Holly is mentioned in my essay about postcards. It was through our correspondence that we dreamed up a course we first taught last May and are offering again, beginning next week. We still have a few spots open, and you can register here. 

Here’s more information and I’m happy to take questions, too. 

In this  five-part workshop, we will focus on epistolary forms—creative writing inspired by postcards, notes, and letters—and we will explore the relationship between paper and pen, author and addressee, intimacy and distance.

Over five weeks we will close-read inspiring works across genres (poetry, lyric essays, flash fiction) by Victoria Chang, Sarah Ruhl, Holly Wren Spaulding, James Schuyler, Franz Wright, Mary Ruefle and others. We will use these examples to spur writing of our own, in whatever genre. 

We will talk about epistolary friendships, writing for a particular reader, and the primacy of literary correspondence in the lives of authors and working writers. 

Holly Wren Spaulding  (author of  Between Us and director of  Poetry Forge) and I will co-facilitate each session.

Would you consider forwarding this email to someone in your life who might be interested in a generative and gentle writing workshop?

Thanks for reading. If you’re seeing my newsletter for the first time, you can read previous issues and subscribe here.

The wonderful comics at the top of the newsletter are by visual artist Shebani Rao with whom I collaborated in 2021 to make an illustrated music playlist to accompany my essay collection. 

Warmly,

Sejal

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This newsletter was originally sent out on February 12, 2022.