Author: Frish Brandt, Unfinished Business

Writing the 5 Essential Letters of Your Life
Wednesday, 12/9/2026
6:00 - 7:30
Suitable for:
  • Adults
Koret Auditorium
Main Library
Address

100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
United States

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Explore how writing can help us navigate grief, connection, forgiveness, and closure with author Frish Brandt, who will discuss her new book, Unfinished Business, in conversation with Laura Holson, founder of The Box Sessions.

We all have unfinished business: thank-you notes we have yet to write, apologies we never made, goodbyes that were incomplete.

In Unfinished Business, Brandt, a "letter writing midwife," provides singular guidance on how to write the five fundamental communiqués that are at the center of our lives: Thank you. I’m sorry. I miss you. I love you. Goodbye.

With real-world experience teaching at Stanford Medical School, Harvard Divinity School, and in workshops and individual sessions around the country, Brandt weaves practical writing prompts with gentle reflections on grief, connection, forgiveness, and closure, and provides the tools—and the courage— to help us write what we have long held inside. Unfinished Business is a book to read, to write alongside, to share and return to again and again.

Frish Brandt is the former president of Fraenkel Gallery where she worked for 39 years. Beginning in 2014, Brandt developed a practice of letter writing for others, which she provides through various hospice-related organizations and Lasting Letters which she founded at that time. She is associated with Bay Health, Stanford Hospital, Commonweal and other organizations. Brandt serves as board president of SF Art & Film for Teens, an organization dedicated to providing cultural programs for Bay Area teens. She is a graduate of California College of Arts and Crafts.

Laura Holson is an award-winning writer and former journalist for The New York Times, photographer, creativity advisor and teacher. She is currently a lecturer in journalism and narrative writing at Stanford University. Laura is a gifted storyteller and keen observer of culture and human behavior. Nearly a decade ago, Holson started a creativity salon that became the foundation for The Box Sessions, which brings together film makers, musicians, writers, storytellers and artists. 

Books will be available for sale and signing courtesy of Borderlands Books.

This event is presented in collaboration with The Box Sessions.


Engage with your favorite writers and discover your next read.


This program is sponsored by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.


Attending Programs

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This program will be conducted in English unless otherwise noted.

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