An epistolary essay is a personal essay written in the form of a letter addressed to a specific person, though they may be dead or unable to read the letter. It allows the writer to focus on an explicit audience of the letter's recipient while also communicating to a broader implicit audience of readers. The writer manages these two audiences by addressing a personal situation in the letter while using stories and anecdotes to convey a deeper point to readers. Epistolary essays employ conventions of letter writing like titles indicating the recipient to signify the explicit audience to readers.

2. An epistolary essay is a
personal essay (typically
published in a public
venue) that’s written in the
form of a letter to
somebody.

3. In other words, the epistolary essay is a literary device that allows
the writer and the readers to focus on an explicit audience (the
person to whom the letter is addressed, who probably won’t actually
read this letter, because they might be dead) while secretly talking to
a much broader, implicit audience (the actual readers of the
published letter).
explicit audience
implicit audience

4. For readers, reading an
epistolary essay is kind of
like listening in on a
conversation – you get to
hear often intimate details
of someone’s life; but
there’s also a deeper point
to it - something that
extends beyond this
particular situation.

5. You could think of managing two audiences in terms of
the situation and the story, which we learned about in
Unit 1. In an epistolary essay, the situation is what you
are writing to the letter’s addressee (the explicit
audience). The story is the deeper point about the
situation that you are trying to make to the readers of
the essay (the implicit audience).

6. Epistolary essays use
traditional genre
conventions for letter
writing to indicate the
explicit audience (they
also sometimes do this
through the title: “A
Letter to X.”)

7. As with most epistolary
essays, your essay will
contain at least one story or
anecdote – this might be a
memory you have with the
person, or it might be a
significant event that has
happened to you since you
last spoke to the recipient of
the letter that you really
wish you could share with
them.

8. Preparing to Write Epistolary Essays
1. Decide on your audiences: your implicit audience and your explicit
audience. What can you say directly to the one that you want the other to
overhear?
2. Identify your point: what do you want to say to your explicit audience (the
person to whom the letter is addressed)? What story or anecdote (either a
memory from your time with the person or a situation that you wish you
could tell them about now) will you use?
3. Then think about the “story” you’re trying to tell - what exactly do you
want your implicit audience (the people who are actually reading your
epistolary essay) to know, feel, or understand as a result of reading your
letter?
4. Think: what kind of “voice” do you want to use for your epistolary essay?
Wistful? Blunt? Resentful? Forgiving?