Unfinished Business: How to Write the Five Essential Letters of Your Life - Hardcover

Brandt, Frish

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241779146 ISBN 13: 9780241779149

Publisher: Particular Books, 2026

Synopsis

A practical and inspiring guide to the art of letter writing, including prompts and exercises to help deepen our most important connections and heal old wounds

We all have unfinished business: thank-you notes we meant to write, goodbyes we never spoke, apologies we never managed to give. Here to help us put those words on paper, ‘letter midwife’ Frish Brandt provides guidance on how to write the five essential letters that can make our lives more meaningful: Thank you, I’m sorry, I miss you, I love you, and Goodbye.

Weaving together practical writing prompts, case studies from her letter-writing workshops and excerpts from historical missives with gentle reflections on grief, connection, forgiveness and closure, Frish equips us with the tools – and the courage – to help us write what we have long held inside. At once an inspiring guide and an ode to the power of the written word, Unfinished Business is a book to read, to write alongside, and to return to again and again.

About this title

About the Author

Frish Brandt teaches essential letter writing at Stanford University’s School of Medicine and to individuals and institutions around the world, including museums, universities, hospitals, and caregiving associations. She worked in the arts for more than four decades before becoming a full-time Letter Midwife. She lives and writes in San Francisco.

Edition details

• Publisher: Particular Books
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0241779146
• ISBN 13: 9780241779149
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240