Poet-to-Poet: A Friendship in Letters
Austin poet Abe Louise Young and Chicago poet Alan Shefsky exchanged over 3,000 intimate, playful, often-rhyming letters and ephemera over thirteen years, until Shefsky's death in 2014. At that time, Young created an art installation that displays 200 of those mailed pieces filling a space, which viewers can read and touch. It also offers a public letter-writing station filled with letter-writing prompts. Visitors have written over 400 letters.
This exhibit showcases the verbal play, joy and naked honesty of two poets who became life-long confidantes using words and art.
Artist Statement by Abe Louise Young
Kurt Vonnegut said once that you only need two things to be a writer: a) something to say, and b) someone to say it to. It is my great good fortune that Alan and I could be that someone for each other until – and through each step of – his death in 2014.
We tried to tell the whole truth. I hope that in seeing these letters, you feel the play and joy of language, and are moved to write a letter of your own.
LETTER-WRITING PROMPTS
by Abe Louise Young
1) Write a letter to yourself at age 5.
2) Write a letter to yourself at age 85. Tell yourself about the life you’ve had.
3) Write a short, appreciative letter to your mother or a short, angry letter to your mother.
4) Consider the night sky, moon and stars. Write a letter describing their qualities to them.
5) Write a letter to your house. Tell it what you love about it most.
6) Write a letter to your plumbing or electricity. Ask questions.
7) Write a letter of apology for something you have been thinking about with regret for more than ten years.
8) Write a letter to someone you are angry with. Tell them why you’re mad or hurt.
9) Write a letter to a future lover inviting them into your life.
10) Write a letter to a former lover wishing them well.
11) Write a letter to a future spouse thanking them.
12) Write a letter to a current spouse telling them something you find uniquely charming or sexy about them.
13) Write a letter to a cherished cat, dog or chicken.
14) Write a letter to your race.
15) Write a letter to another race. Address historical race relations and power dynamics.
16) Write a letter to your gender, or to someone else’s gender.
17) Write a letter in the form of a grocery list.
18) Write a letter to a tree, to a species of trees, or to a particular tree from your childhood.
19) Write a letter full of insults. Be vulgar, rude and awful.
20) Write a letter to your body. Tell your body what you love about it.
21) Write a 1-paragraph letter to your first best friend.
22) Write a letter that works like a bubble bath.
23) Write a letter to someone born into very different circumstances and examine your differences.
24) Write a letter in three questions.
25) Write a letter that is one hour long.
26) Write a letter to a teacher you had in school. Can you find them and mail it?
27) Write a letter to a sport you played or avoided.
28) Write a letter to your teeth.
29) Write a letter that makes no sense…yet.
30) Write a letter that contains breath, stars and soap.
Read the Chicago Tribune story by Mary Schmich, “For 13 years, 2 friends wrote letters daily. It was a love affair of poetry, separated only by death.”
They wrote on big paper and little paper, on notecards and postcards, in longhand and by typewriter. They wrote poems and prose, shared jokes and dreams and dark feelings.
"Dear Alan," she wrote in one, "For you I resurrect the fountain pen."
One day, well into their correspondence, Young told her mailman in Austin, Texas, that she was going to visit Chicago. The mailman, who knew the postmarks on the daily letters, said, "I hope that man is going to marry you."
But it wasn't that kind of relationship. Read more.
Read the 14 East Arts review by Madeline Happold, “Living Letters: Two Poets’ Friendship Lasts In Their Thirteen-Year Correspondence”
“Letters are very intimate,” said Young. “Handwriting is like looking at a face or holding someone’s hand.” Read more.
