Warren Lehrer

Downloadable Press Kit
Images, Animated GIF & Video, Press Release

Early Praise

“This marvel of a book reads itself to you as you turn the pages. It is, in reality, a box of letters that spells ‘G-R-I-E-F’ in a way that is poem, angel’s song, recipe. In LETTER BOX, art and language dance as you understand that you, too, can put your own letters, words, memories into the box. We have all experienced loss, been stymied by grief. LETTER BOX opens its arms to you as you place your grief inside.”
Bob Holman Poet, Poetry Activist and Chronicler, Founder: Bowery Poetry Club

“There is something quite profound and generous in LETTER BOX—a choreography between word, form, silence, image, and geometry—that speaks in ways language alone cannot. After reading it, shapes, colors, feelings, vibrations, and sensations are still moving within me, alongside specific and nonspecific memories of grief and trauma I’ve either encountered personally or professionally, in my clients, or within the collective field. I imagine many will find themselves feeling seen, felt, recognized, understood, and thus gently accompanied through its pages, inviting readers into a collective realm of loss and support for their own paths of integration and healing.”
Selma Quist-Møller Lead Psychologist on Post Traumatic Growth, Reimagine

“LETTER BOX is a poignant collaboration between Rick Black’s tender personal story of love and loss and Warren Lehrer’s boldly cinematic visual treatment. Lehrer activates, magnifies, and interprets Black’s words with an abstract beauty and metaphoric resonance that allows their emotional power to jump in, out, and through his elegant graphic architecture —and right into our hearts.”
Alan Berliner Filmmaker, Pennebaker Career Achievement Award, DOC NYC Visionary Award

Upon receiving an actual copy of the book, after writing an advance quote based on a PDF, Bob Holman wrote: “If a Broadway play were a museum you could bring home and treasure, its title would be Letter Box. Reading the PDF and watching the text as a book, two different things. TOTALLY GREAT!”

“Black and Lehrer offer a text-and-images representation of grief and its many aspects. A curious and visually unique combination of words by former New York Times reporter Black and page designs (“visualization”) by illustrator Lehrer, this book portrays the author’s experiences dealing with grief after his mother’s unexpected death… “I was looking for a new way to write, a way for words to carry the full weight of their meaning,” Black states in the book’s afterword. “Neither established forms of poetry nor prose but something different.” The author’s approach takes the form of single lines describing some aspect of grieving, sometimes spread over multiple pages. The phrase “I am still picking up” ranges across two pages, for instance, followed by “the pieces one by one” over two more, supplemented by various squiggles, lines, crescents, dots, and exclamation points provided by Lehrer. At various points, Black draws on some of his history as a journalist, as when he recounts his time reporting from the Middle East and remembers “a woman slain by a stray bullet while hanging laundry out to dry.” The intensely personal nature of the text is affecting throughout; when Black confesses bald truths like “I wish that I could rewrite these memories,” many readers who’ve experienced life-altering grief will nod in understanding. The book’s final pages, which include actual photos and reproductions of old letters and handwritten notes from the author’s mother, deliver a strong emotional impact, making the lost one feel very present. * A minimalist but cumulatively powerful meditation on deep grief.”
Kirkus Reviews

More to come…

Written by Rick Black. Visualized by Warren Lehrer.
Projected pub date: September 24, 2026. Publisher, Center for Book Arts.
6.5” x 6.5” x 200 pages.

Grief is love with nowhere to go. Sometimes it gets locked up inside for years.
Letter Box: The Geometry of Loss is a deeply moving and beautiful book that addresses how a person can deal with personal loss, feel the bottomless pain, yet manage to move on. Written by former New York Times reporter Rick Black, it is the story of a young man’s coming to grips with the unexpected death of his mother from cancer and other traumatic memories from his years as a reporter in the Middle East. The sparse poetic prose—which consists of only a few words per page—is choreographed for the page by visual literature pioneer Warren Lehrer. His typographic settings give delicate and surprising form to the interior, emotional and metaphorical underpinnings of Black’s words. Together, the writing and visuals create an impactful, beautiful, and distinctively cinematic book experience. Letter Box: The Geometry of Loss is a vehicle for readers of all ages to process their own emotions through a visual and literary odyssey. Health & Wellness/Memoir/Art/Design.

Buy a Signed Copy Now!

sample spreads

photo of front & back cover and spine

video flip through of the book

Downloadable Press Kit
Images, Animated GIF & Video, Press Release

Early Praise

“This marvel of a book reads itself to you as you turn the pages. It is, in reality, a box of letters that spells ‘G-R-I-E-F’ in a way that is poem, angel’s song, recipe. In LETTER BOX, art and language dance as you understand that you, too, can put your own letters, words, memories into the box. We have all experienced loss, been stymied by grief. LETTER BOX opens its arms to you as you place your grief inside.”
Bob Holman Poet, Poetry Activist and Chronicler, Founder: Bowery Poetry Club

“There is something quite profound and generous in LETTER BOX—a choreography between word, form, silence, image, and geometry—that speaks in ways language alone cannot. After reading it, shapes, colors, feelings, vibrations, and sensations are still moving within me, alongside specific and nonspecific memories of grief and trauma I’ve either encountered personally or professionally, in my clients, or within the collective field. I imagine many will find themselves feeling seen, felt, recognized, understood, and thus gently accompanied through its pages, inviting readers into a collective realm of loss and support for their own paths of integration and healing.”
Selma Quist-Møller Lead Psychologist on Post Traumatic Growth, Reimagine

“LETTER BOX is a poignant collaboration between Rick Black’s tender personal story of love and loss and Warren Lehrer’s boldly cinematic visual treatment. Lehrer activates, magnifies, and interprets Black’s words with an abstract beauty and metaphoric resonance that allows their emotional power to jump in, out, and through his elegant graphic architecture —and right into our hearts.”
Alan Berliner Filmmaker, Pennebaker Career Achievement Award, DOC NYC Visionary Award

Upon receiving an actual copy of the book, after writing an advance quote based on a PDF, Bob Holman wrote: “If a Broadway play were a museum you could bring home and treasure, its title would be Letter Box. Reading the PDF and watching the text as a book, two different things. TOTALLY GREAT!”

“Black and Lehrer offer a text-and-images representation of grief and its many aspects. A curious and visually unique combination of words by former New York Times reporter Black and page designs (“visualization”) by illustrator Lehrer, this book portrays the author’s experiences dealing with grief after his mother’s unexpected death… “I was looking for a new way to write, a way for words to carry the full weight of their meaning,” Black states in the book’s afterword. “Neither established forms of poetry nor prose but something different.” The author’s approach takes the form of single lines describing some aspect of grieving, sometimes spread over multiple pages. The phrase “I am still picking up” ranges across two pages, for instance, followed by “the pieces one by one” over two more, supplemented by various squiggles, lines, crescents, dots, and exclamation points provided by Lehrer. At various points, Black draws on some of his history as a journalist, as when he recounts his time reporting from the Middle East and remembers “a woman slain by a stray bullet while hanging laundry out to dry.” The intensely personal nature of the text is affecting throughout; when Black confesses bald truths like “I wish that I could rewrite these memories,” many readers who’ve experienced life-altering grief will nod in understanding. The book’s final pages, which include actual photos and reproductions of old letters and handwritten notes from the author’s mother, deliver a strong emotional impact, making the lost one feel very present. * A minimalist but cumulatively powerful meditation on deep grief.”
Kirkus Reviews

More to come…