Epistolary Erasure: The art of creating new writing from old letters

. . . but letters were letters then; and we made great prizes of them, and read them and studied them like books.?― Elizabeth Gaskell

Erasure is a playful, richly engaging process. Let me show you an example of how I have worked from this form in my own project of creating a poetry manuscript from my mother's letters to my father, 1953-1954 before they married. Here is a finished erasure poem from one of her letters:

Here is one page from the original letter where you will see I extracted "will power" and "polish" –– text that I poached from her letter to create the poem:

And, to show you how an erasure project can even be explored further, I will share this very short performance of "will power" by my daughter who brings the erasure poem to life:

Franci DuMar performing "will power" click here

Join me to play with erasure and your own letter(s) to create new writing.

Ready to play with your letters and writing? I hope you'll sign up for my four week writing webinar that starts Wed. Oct. 25 on Zoom.?

We rarely communicate with actual mailed letters today. And yet many of us have access to family archives containing rich personal histories of intimate and compelling relationships. I want to invite you to bring a letter, or a letter collection, and join my four-week webinar that starts Wednesday October 25, 2023 online, sponsored by the Writing Loft:?? This workshop springs from my process of developing a poetry collection from letter archives through the form of erasure. I will illuminate the creative process of developing new writing and meaning from personal archives and guide you to explore the exciting multi-generational impact of this dynamic form. New and experienced writers are welcome, as well as writers working in memoir and other genres.

Register here. The cost is for the four weeks is $140 for non-members (of the Writer's Loft) ?

PLEASE BRING:?A copy of an original letter of any length in your possession that was sent via the mail. You might be, but you don’t have to be the addressee. This letter might be a postcard or other mailed document, typewritten or handwritten. If you have the original envelope, please bring that too. A jpg image of the letter/envelope is fine for this workshop so that you do not alter any originals.