Bramble Summer 2022 print issue now available.

Editor’s Note

Dear Reader of Bramble,

Welcome to our summer issue, a celebration of poems written as letters.

The epistolary form dates to Homer, a lyric poet of the Roman Empire in the time of Augustus. It was made popular by English poets in the 18th century and broadened in scope by poets today to include emails, texts, chats and even the postcard poem.

A communication between poet and subject, the letter poem adds the third dimension of reader. As readers, we “listen in” to the message sent. As poets, we accept the challenge of this three-way communication keeping in mind our somewhat distant reader as we write to the recipient of our letter.

All this adds interest to writing epistolaries and I thank the many poets who accepted this summons and submitted letter poems for consideration.

In this issue you will read messages sent in various formats to loved ones, historical figures, water, trees and even to a coffee maker. Open these letters and you will connect to the many joys as well as the inevitable frustrations and griefs of living fully.

Complementing the poems are two wonderful essays about the importance of letters and their “cousins”—diaries and reports. The essayists discuss how letters strengthen connections to the past and inspire writing for the future. This issue of Bramble is devoted to letters. Even our cover artist, Stephanie R. Carpenter, is a letterpress artist.

I appreciate the strong connection of epistolary writing, its immediate rapport and am happy for the opportunity to collect these letter poems and send them to you. It is fun to get letters. Savor them, individually and as a collection, and let them inspire you to write letters of your own.

Kathleen Serley
July 2022

Kathleen Serley

Kathleen Serley is a lifelong Wisconsin resident and retired educator. She has a Ph.D from UW-Madison and serves as Mid-Central VP for Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. Her poems have appeared in journals including The Solitary Plover, Third Wednesday, Verse Wisconsin and Eastern Iowa Review and have been recognized by The Hal Prize, Verse and Visions and the UWEC Centennial Poetry Competition. Her first book of poetry, Statements Made in Passing, was released by Water’s Edge Press in Spring 2022.

Artist Bio

Stephanie Carpenter is a letterpress printer, educator, and graphic designer living in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Since 2011 she has worked at the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin where she helps maintain the world’s largest collection of 1.5 million pieces of wood type. At the museum she leads programs including New Impressions an international, juried exhibition; coordinates the annual Wayzgoose conference; and teaches workshops. She was born and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana and received her BA in Communication Arts and Graphic Design at the University of Saint Francis and her MFA in Graphic Design from Indiana University, Bloomington. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally in Australia, Brazil, India, Italy and Japan.

Website: http://www.stephaniercarpenter.com/
Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/hello.stephanie/