WRIT52803 - Epistolary Writing Across Genres

Course Description

This literary form of letter writing, which traces back to the Roman lyric poet Horace, has continued to evolve and grow in popularity, enriching prose writing as well. Sometimes letters and other documents are integrated into a larger narrative and other times an entire book is in the form of a letter, like Ocean Vuong's 2019 novel On Earth We are Briefly Gorgeous and Ta-Nehesi Coate's memoir Between the World and Me.

In The Poet's Glossary (2014), poet and critic Edward Hirsch says of the poet writing in this form that "some create fictive speakers, as in Ezra Pound's adaptation of Li Po's 'The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter' (1915). Some are addressed to those long dead, others to contemporaries. But unlike an actual letter, the letter poem is never addressed to just its recipient; it is always meant to be overheard by a third person, a future reader."  This is true of all forms of literary letter writing, including the epistolary essay which takes on many exciting forms.

Through reading and emulating excellent examples, we will explore how these different forms of epistolary writing can enhance our own work, encouraging us to experiment with voice, form, and point of view.