I, we, you—on changing tense as art form

Studying the gorgeous braid that brings us together as writer and reader

Welcome to Slant Letter’s spring seasonal intensive! Become a paid subscriber to join our full close reading of Pádraig Ó Tuama’s In the Shelter for an editor’s annotated insights on an extraordinary meditation on the stories that shape us. These will be exclusive letters sent straight to you running from the end of March through May.

The most resonant writing will always be a braid of I, we, and you, because ultimately we are all in this human experience together. But how do you know when to use which voice? Discerning when to change your narrative tense is an art form.

Pádraig Ó Tuama

offers us a vital case study of this art in our close reading today of In the Shelter, in which we’ll cover:

• The confessional power of first-person singular writing

• What hospitality for your reader looks like on the page

• Cues for discerning which tense to use when

We start with an excerpt from In the Shelter.