Dear Character — Dwight Edward Allen

Featured Letters

These readers said the thing we all felt. Some received answers.

Dear Shayla,

I saw myself in your silence. Not in your strength — everyone talks about your strength — but in the specific way you went quiet when the room got too loud. I do that. I've done it my whole life and never once had a word for it. You gave me the word. You gave me the permission. I just wanted you to know that the night I read your story, I stopped apologizing for the quiet. Thank you for that. It was the first thing I stopped apologizing for in eleven years.

Written to: Shayla

— A Reader in Atlanta

In Character Response

The quiet was never the problem. The quiet is where I learned to hear myself. I'm glad you found it too. Keep it. Don't let anyone take it from you.

— Shayla

Dear Devon,

I didn't think someone could be that lost and still be searching. Most people who are as far gone as you were in Part One have already stopped looking for the door. But you kept walking. You walked into walls, you walked backwards, you walked in circles — but you never stopped. I needed to see that. I was in my own Part One when I read about yours. I'm in Part Two now. I think I'm in Part Two now. I wanted to tell you, because I think you'd understand what that means.

Written to: Devon

— M., somewhere in Ohio

Dear Mary,

Thank you for surviving. That's the whole letter. I know you didn't always want to and I know you didn't always think you would, and I know there were chapters where I couldn't tell if you were going to make it to the next page. But you did. And reading you — watching you survive the things no one was supposed to survive — I started to believe that I could too. I don't know if fictional characters can receive gratitude. I'm sending it anyway.

Written to: Mary

— K.T., reader and survivor

In Character Response

I survived because someone believed I would before I believed it myself. Every time a reader holds my story, that's what you are — the one who believed first. Thank you for reading me through. Thank you for surviving too.

— Mary

Write Your Letter

Say the thing the pages held space for you to say.

Your letter was received.

Letters are reviewed carefully. If yours is selected for a response, you'll hear from the character — in character — through the email you provided.

Letters are reviewed by Dwight's team. Selected letters receive an in-character response written by Dwight himself. Your privacy is protected — identifying details are never shared without consent.