In this course we will explore the poetics of epistolary writing, where we will investigate the appeal of a dialogical exchange with another or among our own poems. We will use as our base texts Rilke’s Letters to A Young Poet, Letters To Poets: Conversations About Poetics, Politics, And Community (which includes poets John Yau, Eileen Myles, Anne Waldman and Kathleen Fraser), and a series of epistles by Jack Spicer, Nathaniel Mackey, Bernadette Mayer and others. Through these readings, we will discuss the letter in relation to intentionality, form, process, tone, and audience, and consider how the letter, or poem as letter, might expand the notion and material of poem-making. The class work will consist of weekly writing experiments in response to the readings, a semester-long epistolary exchange with a classmate, several collaborative works, and a final extended writing project.