Epistolary poetry is at least as old as Horace and has since evolved. Letter-writing may be a lost art but we still post messages – via e-mail, text message, etc. – of all sorts. The line between poems written as letters from the poet to a specific person vs. those written from a persona to real or imagined recipients is blurred – and so much the better! Who is writing, and to whom is the poem/letter really addressed – an individual recipient, or a wider audience? Is the writer communicating candidly, with subterfuge, or in a combination of honesty and duplicity? In this workshop we’ll read and talk about some great “letter” poems and do a couple of writing exercises aimed at expanding the notions of what an epistle poem is.
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DAVID P. KOZINSKI has offered more than 25 poetry programs to the public since becoming Poet in Residence at New Castle County Delaware’s Rockwood Museum in 2020 and presented workshops for adults and teens at various venues, including the Bay to Ocean Writers Conference in 2021, 2022 and 2023. His books include I Hear It the Way I Want It to Be (a finalist for the Hillary Gravendyke Prize) and Tripping Over Memorial Day (both Kelsay Books). He received a Delaware Division of the Arts fellowship, and was Expressive Path’s Mentor of the Year. Kozinski serves on the editorial board of Philadelphia Stories and is Art Editor of Schuylkill Valley Journal.