Dear Committee Members

Told entirely through letters of recommendation, the novel follows Jason T. Fitger, a professor of creative writing and English at Payne University, over the course of a single academic year (September 2009 to August 2010). Fitger's letters, addressed to admissions committees, employers, administrators, and old friends, gradually reveal intertwined personal and professional crises: his campaign to save his most promising student, the collapse of his academic department, the wreckage of his romantic life, and his reckoning with a mentor whose influence distorted the careers of everyone around him.

The novel opens with Fitger writing to the Bentham Literary Residency Program on behalf of Darren Browles, his graduate advisee, who is working on a novel called Accountant in a Bordello, a retelling of Herman Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener" set in a 1960s Nevada brothel. Fitger describes the manuscript in glowing terms and mentions that his literary agent, Ken Doyle, is eager to see it completed. This letter is the first in what becomes an increasingly desperate campaign to secure Browles financial support and time to finish the book, a thread that gradually becomes the novel's emotional center.

Fitger's early letters establish the dire state of the English Department. Theodore Boti, a sociologist installed as department chair by the administration as a punitive measure, has inherited a faculty hollowed out by retirements and the steady replacement of full-time positions with underpaid adjunct instructors. The department's building, Willard Hall, is undergoing a destructive renovation to accommodate the Economics Department, whose faculty have been relocated to new quarters while English faculty remain amid construction debris, broken windows, hazardous particulate matter, blocked doors, and broken elevators. Fitger chronicles the building's decay with dark relish across many letters.

Fitger's personal life surfaces in fragments. His ex-girlfriend, Carole Samarkind, recently ended their three-year relationship after Fitger sent what he calls a "boneheaded e-mail." His marriage to his ex-wife, Janet Matthias-Fitger, who works in law school admissions at Payne, ended years earlier, hastened by the publication of his novel Transfer of Affection, which drew too transparently on their private life.

The novel gradually uncovers the history of "the Seminar," a prestigious graduate writing program where Fitger, Eleanor Acton, Ken Doyle, Troy Larpenteur, Madelyne Tort-Verona (whom Fitger calls MTV), and Janet all studied under H. Reginald Hanf (HRH), an influential literary figure. HRH championed Fitger's debut novel, Stain, helping him publish it. The book, a roman à clef (a novel closely based on real people and events) about the Seminar, generated lasting resentment among Fitger's classmates. Eleanor Acton, who had a brief sexual relationship with Fitger, believed she was the model for a character named Esther and denounced Fitger publicly. When Eleanor becomes director of Bentham, Fitger appeals for an extended residency for Browles, asking her not to punish his student for personal grievances. Eleanor rejects Browles, calling his project "derivative," and instead offers a six-month residency to Vivian Zelles, a graduate student in Fitger's fiction workshop whose work he considers inferior to Browles's. Fitger recognizes the rejection as payback aimed at him.

In a candid letter to MTV, who directs a retreat center for people with post-traumatic stress disorder in Wyoming, Fitger makes his most honest confession about Stain: He acknowledges he would have done anything to publish the book, and that HRH urged him to "spice up" the narrative with Seminar material. Troy Larpenteur persuaded Fitger to cut the most explicit scene. Fitger asks MTV to accept Browles at her center, recognizing that Eleanor's rejection has taken a psychological toll on his student. The letter goes unanswered; Fitger later learns from a returned letter stamped "DECEASED" that MTV has died.

Troy Larpenteur's story emerges as a parallel tragedy. The most gifted writer in the Seminar, Troy published a brilliant novella called Second Mind that was praised but commercially neglected. He lost his pregnant wife, Navia, and his manuscript when the cabin they were staying in was struck by lightning. Devastated, Troy moved to India and disappeared for over a decade before resurfacing during the novel's timeline. A William Gass essay praises Second Mind as a neglected masterpiece, and Fitger lobbies Eleanor to offer Troy a residency at Bentham, telling her Troy has been reading astonishing new work aloud over the phone. Eleanor invites Troy, and Ken brokers a deal to reissue Second Mind. The novel's final letter reveals the phone readings were a lie Fitger told to promote Troy's candidacy.

Meanwhile, Fitger writes dozens of other letters revealing the range of his professional life. He recommends students for jobs at grocery stores, paintball businesses, catering companies, and an RV park, each letter laced with acerbic wit and genuine concern. He advocates for colleagues whose departments are being eliminated, battles online recommendation forms that cut off his responses, and deliberately sabotages Carole's application to another college by revealing their sexual history, admitting he does not want her to leave.

Fitger's own publishing career is in decline. Stain succeeded partly because of its scandalous content; his next two novels, Alphabetical Stars and Save Me for Later, were poorly received; Transfer of Affection failed commercially and hastened his divorce. His agent greets new work with indifference.

The Browles campaign grows more desperate as the year progresses. Fitger asks Janet to arrange a research assistantship at the law school and writes to the campus radio station seeking any work for Browles, who owes back rent and may be sleeping at the gym. In a pivotal misstep, Fitger sends chapters of Browles's manuscript to HRH, hoping his former mentor will use his remaining influence. Instead, HRH, now in a retirement home and experiencing cognitive decline after a stroke, gives an interview claiming to be writing a novel about "the problem of 'Bartleby,'" a concept taken directly from Browles's proposal. Fitger reflects on HRH's destructive influence, recalling how HRH told Janet her writing was "sterile," a verdict that haunted her for years and contributed to their divorce.

The novel's climax arrives in a June letter to Carole. Fitger reveals that Browles has died. The cause is not stated explicitly, but the circumstances, including a note left to family and the deliberate destruction of all copies of his novel, strongly imply suicide. Fitger recounts his last encounter with Browles at a drugstore, where he gripped Browles's sleeve, wanting to tell him the novel was not publishable in its current form but unable to find the words. He walked away without speaking honestly. Browles's mother tells Fitger her son burned all copies of the novel, wiping six drafts from his computer and setting fire to the paper versions. Fitger reflects that Browles was patient, kind, and quietly determined, and wishes he had said so directly rather than reserving his praise for letters Browles would never see. He announces his intention to fund a $30,000 scholarship in Browles's name from his own savings, stipulating that no letters of recommendation will be required, only a statement of artistic and financial need.

The novel's final letter, written in August to Eleanor, carries a tone of chastened resolve. Fitger thanks Eleanor for contributing to the Browles fellowship and reveals that Janet returned from vacation to comfort him after the death. He confesses the lie about Troy's phone readings, framing the deception as an act of faith in Troy's talent. He reveals that he has accepted the nomination for English Department chair, despite being widely disliked, because no other candidates exist and his literary career is at a standstill. Janet supported his nomination, and Fitger notes with wry humor that she is now dating the dean. He signs off looking forward to the new academic year, "another chance for self-improvement," and hoping to consider himself Eleanor's friend once more.