Hi Kirk,

I took a look at your site this evening and thought I'd email you.

I'm a writer currently working on a book project for publisher Carroll & Graf, (tentatively titled "Hell Hath No Fury") which will be an anthology of the female poison pen letter. By "poison pen" I mean correspondence (letter, email, anything) written by women during or after the end of a relationship/marriage in which the author is venting/clarifying/protesting/summarizing/mourning the relationship. I guess you could say a poison pen letter is the exact opposite of a love letter. You might even call it a fuck-you letter.

So far I've collected quite a few examples of poison pen letters written by notable women such as Edith Wharton, Queen Elizabeth I, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Mae West, and I'm going to continue to collect such historical missives. But I'm also looking to include the letters of contemporary women and I'd love to know if you, your friends, your readers, or any of your colleagues might have something to contribute.

Letters can be written by women who were involved in both straight or gay relationships, and length is not an issue. If a letter is only one sentence, fine. If it's 20 pages, that's fine too. And timeframe is not an issue either: if a woman has kept a letter she wrote 20 years ago, I'd love to see it. Or if it was written just last week, that's great too. Nor does the material have to have been sent...just written (as you know, a lot of women write letters that they never send, just for the purpose of catharsis).

I am willing to consider anonymity, although of course I'd rather use the real name of the letter-writer (the name of the recipient is not important and will most likely not be used). :-)

Thanks, and I hope to hear from you soon.


Best,

Anna Holmes
annaholmes@earthlink.net