Open Letter to Exeter

Dear Exeter:

Nine months ago, my wife Grace and I and our daughters, Rosalea and Caroline, arrived in Exeter after an epic cross country drive with a dog, two cats and a U-Haul trailer full of our belongings. The air was still heavy with summer. Thickly forested roadways felt like green tunnels. We noted exotic birds (for us) like cardinals and seagulls. For a while we weren’t sure where the sun would rise or set, but we did know that we were a long way from our home in Colorado.

Somehow, most of our time here has already come and gone. I have enjoyed meeting some of you in classes and talking with you about your writing. My daughter Rosalea has also enjoyed her time around the Harkness table in math and chemistry classes. We have witnessed Andover-Exeter games, been to assemblies and meditations, taken in concerts, poetry readings and plays. We have paddled the river and walked the woods. You have welcomed us into your homes. Thank you for sharing your world with us. We are deeply grateful for all the generosity

and hospitality we have experienced here.

The Bennett Fellowship has been such a rich experience. I leave here confident that I will eventually see the mystery I have been working on in published form and I look forward to sharing it with you then. In the meantime, I look forward to offering a preview of what’s to come at the library reading on Tuesday evening, May 24, at 7:00. Hope to see you there.

Thanks again for everything,

Sincerely,

Peter Anderson

Bennett Fellow 2015-2016