Public Letter Project
A new participatory series
A brief announcement—
I’m starting a new series on Substack called Public Letter Project in which I invite anyone to write me a letter about whatever is on your mind and I’ll write one back here on this little email list. Questions?
Q: Where do I send a letter?
A: aletterfromcatherine@gmail.com
Q: How long should they be?
A: I think less than a thousand words is probably better, maybe even shorter than that. There’s no limit but the limits of time itself. Go longer if you feel that you need to go longer. Just be bold enough to write what you really want to write.
Wait look at this gorgeous Mary Cassatt print for a second—
Isn’t it marvelous? She did it while she was studying Japanese printmaking. I think it’s my favorite thing of hers I’ve ever seen.
OK back to the questions—
Q: Is this an advice column?
A: You can ask for advice if you want, but I am not thinking of this as an advice column. I’m thinking of it as an exchange of letters in public.
Q: Why are you doing this?
A: I just really love the letter format. Sometimes when I feel stuck with writing, I write letters to friends. Or sometimes when I don’t know how to continue a piece of fiction, I envision the whole thing as a letter to one specific person and that usually helps.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: If you send me the email from the email you use for your Substack subscription, and if your letter is one that I use or intend to use, I can go into the list and comp you a few months of a full/paid subscription.
Thank you!!
Love this idea. I recently took part in a six-week letter writing project with three groups (from all walks of life) in different counties. I had no idea who I was writing to but the responses made it worth. Some were very moving, or surprising, and often - weirdly - chimed with subjects I was going to write about the following week. Really look forward to this. Am sure you know about Nick Cave’s Red Hand Files, but if not, you might like them. Happy new year from Dublin! Sinéad
Love the idea! Do you envision it as a one-time exchange or with a few back-and-forths?