A Letter of Praise for a New Book

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 I received this letter as an email about how we hold on, my latest collection of poetry. An author could ask for no greater praise.

Dear Karren:

I'm up in Vermont for a few weeks and have been reading your book, which arrived just before I left. I cannot tell you how impressed I am by your inventiveness, the range of your subject matter, your formal "flexibility," and the poems themselves. I read the entire thing in two sittings, which says a lot!

Another project while I'm up here is putting together a new workshop on prose poetry for The Writer's Center. Would you let me include your "Girl Talk" poem on the handout? I won't be teaching this until next spring, and the content is still in flux, but at the moment this poem would seem to fit in perfectly.

I found the love poems--particularly "Composition"--very moving. I know it has been a while since you lost your husband, but these poems really brought back a lot of what we long-married types seem to take for granted. So thank you for that.

with admiration,
Sue Ellen