Letters To Each Other
We’ve been really enjoying Letters In The Mail. The letter writers have been enjoying it too, as you can see from this essay by Matthew Specktor, and this one by Sari Botton. We decided to get everybody more involved, so we’re launching Letters To Each Other.
This is how it’s going to work. You send a letter, no more than one page, double sided OK, and a self addressed stamped envelope. We’ll photo-copy the letters and send you six letters back in the SASE you provided. Your Letter To Each Other must be post-marked by May 4.
Send one letter, and a SASE, get six letters back. It’s up to you whether or not to include a return address in your letter.
Letters To Each Other is free, we’re going to cover the cost of copying the letters. If you want to include a dollar it’s greatly appreciated, but not necessary.
You have to be a subscriber to Letters In The Mail to participate. At least this time. After we’ve done it once or twice and figured out some of the logistics that may change. It may not. In the next Letter In The Mail there will be an extra sheet with instructions, including the mailing address for where to send your letter.
What could possibly go wrong?
April 8th, 2012 at 8:13 pm
This sounds so great. If I buy a subscription to Letters in the Mail before May 4, can I participate?
April 9th, 2012 at 6:53 am
Yes. As long as you have a subscription before May 4 you can participate.
April 9th, 2012 at 5:18 pm
What about international subscribers? Is there a way we can participate? (mostly just wondering about whether a Sade with Australian stamps will be of any use, and what one might do otherwise?)
April 10th, 2012 at 6:50 am
International subscribers can participate by acquiring American stamps and putting $.98 on the SASE, or by including an American $5 bill in the envelope.
April 23rd, 2012 at 11:10 am
Which letter is going to have the instuctions for “letters to each other”? I just received Sari Button’s letter last week and I want to make sure I get the address in time.
April 27th, 2012 at 5:41 pm
Hate to sound internet-paranoid, but if you include your real name and real address….?Fill in the blanks. Can you guarantee that the “community” is mostly sane and responsible?
(need to include the damned smile)
May 1st, 2012 at 2:36 pm
I would like to participate, but can you resend the address to me? I am a subscriber to Letters in the Mail, but my Tao Lin letter went missing along with the submission guidelines/address–double sad face. I may have sleepwalked around with it.
And is this how it works: My one letter will go to one random person, but in return I will get six random letters?
May 4th, 2012 at 1:13 pm
Lin,
Don’t be so paranoid. People are rarely crazy toward strangers, only people they already know. Its much more likely you would be killed in a car accident than a person travel cross country to hurt you.
May 8th, 2012 at 10:24 am
Great idea! Life didn’t allow a response by the specified date (actually I didn’t get a chance to really read the note until today) but if this works, and I really believe it will take off, let me know about the next time you have signups.
May 17th, 2012 at 3:32 pm
Are you going to do another sign up soon? I really want to participate! I didn’t know there was a cut off date.
May 18th, 2012 at 11:53 am
I just received my first Letters to Each Other letters!! Thanks to Stephen and the whole Rumpus crew for organizing this. Most of the letters were really interesting and unique. I can’t wait to write back and to establish an ongoing correspondence. Two of the letters struck me as a bit strange, as one writer indicated that she wasn’t seeking long-term correspondence, and the other stated that you could write her, but that she couldn’t guarantee that she would write back. I guess I can appreciate their honesty, but wasn’t the whole point of this to establish correspondence with each other?
May 18th, 2012 at 12:23 pm
Got the letters today, and they are beautiful. I’m so happy to have them. The only bummer is that I only got four letters!
May 31st, 2012 at 6:45 am
what addy do I send letters to each other.
June 1st, 2012 at 1:31 pm
I received 6 letters. Answered 5 of them approximately three weeks ago. The only “response” I’ve gotten so far is a letter returned as “undeliverable.” (I re-checked the name and address and I had it exactly as written.) In actuality, just answering them was a good experience…but still..I guess that when it comes down to it, people have to make time for this and even if they are initially enthusiastic, they might not be motivated enough, for one reason or another, to respond. In any case, I hope people generally have a better experience than I have had so far.
June 14th, 2012 at 2:22 am
Hi! Can I please send a check rather than do the paypal?? My account is old, and I hadn’t updated the address, and apparently it’s a huge pain to change my address to a foreign address on the account…otherwise I would have sent this letter days ago. If I CAN write a check, who should I write as the recipient? THANKS
June 14th, 2012 at 3:08 am
I think it’s important for us to keep the art of letter-writing alive. Do you know that elementary schools (in Texas, at least) have removed cursive handwriting from the curriculum? What that means, for me, is that my young nieces & nephews cannot read what I write in a greeting card to them. It means that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, when seen in their original forms, are written in an indecipherable language to the entire current generation of children. That’s not just sad; that is a tragedy. The only way to keep the written word alive is to WRITE IT! Let’s not let our written personalities wither from disuse. Let’s write, ya’ll!