Ear Mountain

not a letter but some lists

or, a bouquet for 2023

Jan 4 • 

Liza Birnbaum

October 2021

Dear Sam,

I’ve been knocking this letter around in my head—and putting down partial starts to it on paper— for so long that it’s become almost impossible to…

Oct 21, 2021 • 

Liza Birnbaum

April 2021

Dear Blake B.,

I recently read a book of poems that reminded me a little of your writing, and that I think you might really like. And who knows—maybe you do already…

Apr 8, 2021 • 

Liza Birnbaum

February 2021

Dear Molly,

Though we are more than a month past Midwinter Day, and also well past your amazing read-aloud of Bernadette Mayer’s poem of that name, there is a part…

Feb 1, 2021 • 

Liza Birnbaum

May 2020

Dear Paul,

It feels like this letter might hurt a little to write. Not because it's hard to write to you—we've long been correspondents and conversationalists…

May 31, 2020 • 

Liza Birnbaum

April 2020

Dear Gwyneth,

The world now seems like an entirely different one from the one in which I wrote my last long-ago Ear Mountain! First of all, let me say: I hope you and…

Apr 16, 2020 • 

Liza Birnbaum

August 2019

Dear Emelio,

I started a version of this letter many weeks ago, and then abandoned it—I just now tore it out of the notebook I use to draft these epistles, where it…

Aug 1, 2019 • 

Liza Birnbaum

April 2019

Dear Pam,

I spent this morning, after finishing my remote work, watching videos of your friend and mentor Paulus Berensohn talking about his art and his teaching…

Apr 11, 2019 • 

Liza Birnbaum

March 2019

Dear Becca P.,

Two weeks ago I retold the story of you and Emelio in (I believe) Hong Kong, buying clothes at Uniqlo for what you thought would be a fancy dinner, and…

Mar 4, 2019 • 

Liza Birnbaum

February 2019

Dear Joe,

Have you heard about or seen C.D. Wright's new and last book? It's called Casting Deep Shade, and it's about, or circles around, beech trees. Yesterday…

Feb 11, 2019 • 

Liza Birnbaum

Dear Rebecca S.,

I know we've talked a lot about the story of the soccer ball. But because this is, after all, a public letter, I'm going to bring it up again, if only…

Feb 4, 2019 • 

Liza Birnbaum

January 2019

Dear Matt,

Where will you move??? I'm beginning this letter in a state of ignorance, wondering if any plans have fallen into place for you and Gwyneth, and…

Jan 28, 2019 • 

Liza Birnbaum