Our next Letter in the Mail comes from writer, poet, and editor Lisa Factora-Borchers! Lisa sends a letter both handwritten and typed (on an actual typewriter!), because “editorial texture is art.” She shares with us what she learned about herself by taking a three-month social media break, and why it’s important to have both periods of silence and times when you let in other voices.
To make sure Lisa’s artful, insightful letter finds its way to your mailbox, subscribe to Letters in the Mail by August 28! And remember, Letters in the Mail helps us keep The Rumpus running—so, you can correspond with your favorite writers and support the website in one fell swoop.
Lisa Factora-Borchers is a Filipinx American writer, activist, and editor of Dear Sister: Letters from Survivors of Sexual Violence (AK Press, 2014). She is a senior features editor at The Rumpus, a contributing editor at Catapult magazine, and the book editor for Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice. Her work can be found in The Rumpus, Guernica, Adroit Journal, The Independent (UK), Refinery 29, TruthOut, The International Examiner, Mutha, and Ano Ba magazines. She has contributed to anthologies Burn It Down: Women Writing About Anger, Feminisms in Motion: Voices for Justice, Liberation, and Transformation, Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Frontlines, and Verses Typhoon Yolanda: A Storm of Filipino Poets. Lisa has been awarded fellowships and residencies with Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation (VONA), the Sundress Academy of the Arts, and the Pink Door Writing Retreat. She received a BA in English Literature from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio; a joint masters degree in Counseling Psychology and Pastoral Ministry from Boston College; and an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University. Lisa is also a seasoned facilitator and has led workshops, retreats, and forums centralizing race, feminism, political consciousness, spirituality, transformative listening, and sustainable, everyday activism.
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Photograph of Lisa Factora-Borchers by Lisa Factora-Borchers.