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We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of Letters from Max, a book including the correspondence between Max Ritvo and Sarah Ruhl. Letters from Max tells the story of the relationship between a young poet diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma and a celebrated playwright who began as his teacher and became, over the course of an extended correspondence, his friend, and finally, his student.

One Friday afternoon this past May, I received an email from Martha Collins. She asked me to consider a manuscript by a young poet named Max Ritvo. Jean Valentine had selected his work for a chapbook competition, Martha explained, and Lucie Brock-Broido had selected some of the poems in the manuscript for publication in the Boston Review. Martha added only that there was some urgency, as an illness had thrust this young man into what would become the final stage of his life.