Artist Statement: The original text of this erasure is from a time-stamped, ten-page, handwritten letter I received in the mail from a man after I told him I no longer wanted to see him again after our second date. As for artistic restrictions, I removed any information that encroached on his privacy, and honored the paragraph breaks of the original letter in my transcription. This erasure functions as my only response to him.

Paige Thomas is a writer and recent graduate of Oregon State University’s MFA Program where she was the recipient of the 2020-2021 Provost’s Distinguished Graduate Fellowship. During her time at the University of Idaho, she received both the Hogue Family Centennial Literary Scholarship and the Leishman Reid English Award for her writing. Her work appears in Diode, Columbia Journal, Hobart, Noble/Gas Qtrly and elsewhere. Currently, she is a teaching fellow at The Attic Institute for Arts & Letters, and works in Portland, OR.