Q&A with Kathy and Donovan, Letter Writers Alliance
1. Tell us about yourself! What’s your background and what inspired you to start the The Letter Writers Alliance?
The Letter Writers Alliance exists because Kathy and I grew tired of hearing people say that they loved letters, but nobody writes them anymore. We heard it all the time, so we figured we should try to connect these people who love letter writing so they don't feel like the only ones anymore. We decided to create the Alliance to network those letter lovers together. We created a website and came up with a concept for what a membership would entail and what kind of perks came with it. That was back in the Summer of 2007 and we’ve been growing ever since.
2. Describe The Letter Writers Alliance - how does it work? How many members are there? Can you talk about the intersection of the online world and the growing interest in letter-writing?
In this era of instantaneous communication, a letter is a rare and wondrous item. The Letter Writers Alliance is dedicated to preserving this joy; neither long lines, nor late deliveries, nor increasing postal rates will keep us from our mission. With a combination of both online presence and in person gatherings we strive to give people the tools to correspond tangibly in our increasingly digital existence. As of this writing, we have over 10,000 members from all over the world. The L.W.A. offers free downloads of stationery and cards, members only products and projects, and a blog with all the goings on in the letter writing world. We also offer an optional pen pal swap between members, run contests, and have a special currency called Inklings that members can earn through community involvement and the turn in for free things. A lifetime membership is $5 plus shipping through our website and comes with a fancy member card and patch. We want to inspire you online to go offline and write more letters. We also hold Letter Socials, both the virtual and traditional varieties. The traditional socials are limited to a physical space, which is great for a fun gathering, but not great for being able to include all our members. Since we have so many International members, we saw the virtual social as a way to engage our entire membership community. The social runs for 24 hours of which you can participate in when and how you want to. To participate with the rest of the community, people can share their mail thoughts, letter photos, and mail stack by using the hashtag #LWASocial and share via Twitter and Instagram. We also broadcast live video of us writing at our studio for a couple hours. We often have a friend or two join us and we take questions and share tips. (The videos are archived on our site and YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2oEjZjrq-zjCTnsNr1vtlg )
We love how social media, blogs, and websites are helping people get inspired to get offline and write a letter. These outlets allow us to share our joy of letter writing to the digital world and find even more people with our love of mail. Thanks to active forums for mail like Postcrossing and the broader reach of something like Instagram, the concept of letter writing is being exposed to a wider range of people. We use the digital to add value to our community, such as with the membersite, which helps us connect with our world-wide community, as well as with online events.
3. How have hand-written letters impacted your life and relationships? Why is having The Letter Writers Alliance important to you?
Letters and mail bring us great joy and that is only compounded when you can share that joy with others who really understand and feel the same. I have met the best people through the mail. I found that I started to get to know a lot more diverse people through letters. I wasn’t just interacting with my peers or my political group or people who shared an interest of mine other than writing. Moreover, I discovered that the majority of people really are genuinely nice and thoughtful. I have been given so many different opportunities through options opened up to me through relationships started with letter writing. Letters bring together an amazingly diverse group of people and I am deeply honored and enormously pleased to be a part of a community of so many interesting people. It makes me so happy that so many people share this love and are willing to share it with others.
4. What does your letter-writing practice look like? How often do you write, and what types of letters do you write most often? What do you do for inspiration and to make time and space for letter-writing?
I am always writing letters. My spare moments are dedicated to returning my mail. I have developed a number of lasting pen pal relationships through the L.W.A. and consider it my goal to return letters in short order. I carry a bag with me that has stationery, pens, and my unread mail. I don’t read a letter until I have the time to respond to it. Otherwise, I get really bogged down in mental composition. I like to be very conversational in my letters and the quick response keeps it more natural. I have a tendency in my life to overwork things; so this is a nice change of pace. I probably write about 25 letters and postcards a week. Most of those are responses to letters I have received, but I do occasionally sneak in a fan letter or a thank you or a just because note. Kathy tends to write around 5 letters a month, sticks to simple paper and fountain pens, and tends to write longer letters. Her and I really show the span of the types of letter writers there are around. I find Instagram to be a super inspirational place for letter writing, and since I am the main author on the L.W.A. blog, I’m always hunting through the wilds of the internet for all kinds of letter writing goodness.
5. Modern times have made digital correspondence increasingly available and convenient. Why is it important for people to send handwritten cards and letters?
The act of writing a letter is a gift of your time and ideas. There is a sense of connection with your own thoughts that you don’t normally get when talking or writing an email, and I think this resonates with people. There is more of a journalistic thought process occurring when writing a letter and it is amazing how many times I write things I had no idea I was feeling or even solve issues I was having just by writing it out to a pen pal. If you reach back and remember the joy from receiving a letter, something to hold, to reread, to treasure and then imagine passing that feeling on to someone else. A letter means even more today than it used to. They became mundane, but are now almost sacred artifacts. Also, letters are extremely important primary sources for our collective experience of history. I wonder a lot about what is being lost with the advent of email and text and Twitter and how much history is sacrificed to the delete key. It's a small, very small, price to pay to touch someone the way that a letter can. You start by sending them out and the reward is receiving them. A lot of people just need to take the first step; send that first letter. You have to write a letter to get a letter, is what we say.
6. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received about letter-writing?
I like to pass along that letter writing should not be a burden in your life. Every letter deserves a response, but the nature of that response is up to you. You shouldn’t feel guilty over unreturned letters. One of the best things about letters is that they don’t have expiration dates. Answer things in your own time, on your own terms. We aren’t the Letter Writing Police. We want everyone to have fun. If you get overwhelmed, try sending out a postcard instead with a “Hey, I got your letter. I’m a bit behind right now, but I hope to catch up soon.” Courtesy, kindness, and civility in conversation are all watch words for great letter writing relationships.
We get a lot of questions about the “proper”, “right”, or “best” way to write a letter. The answer isn’t that straightforward. It all depends on who you are writing to, the old adage of know your audience; a great letter to your grandmother is not the same as a great letter to your pen pal in London. Also, embrace patience. Letters are a gift of your time. Learn to savor doing something slowly as a welcome change from the rest of your life when everything must be done yesterday.
7. When is it better to send a letter than an e-mail, phone call or text?
Letters are always better, with the one exception of trying to schedule something on a deadline. Emails are great tools. You’ve used it here to get your answers fast. I can tell you that my answers would have been different if I were handwriting this to send it back to you in the mail. The manner in which a response is made influences the nature of that response. I cannot judge whether or not one is more worthy than another, but I have definitely noticed a difference between a handwritten letter and a typed one. I don’t talk on the telephone hardly at all. If I have something important to talk about, I do it in a letter. Text and email are only for things like scheduling meetings or coordinating lists of tasks. All of my conversations are in person or on the page. Those people you message on Facebook, think of how much more impactful it would be for them to receive a real letter from you. That tweet you just sent, next time, write it down on a postcard. Make your message a part of the physical world and it will be a great deal more memorable than a few words on a screen. We always tell people that we aren't anti-email; we're just pro real-mail. Mainly, we just want people to write more letters.
8. What’s the next letter you’re planning to write?
I have two pen pal letters waiting for responses; one to California, one to Canada. I need to send a thank you for a donation. Oh, and I remembered that I forgot to answer a question in a letter about a particular type of material; so I plan to send samples of that material off to that pen pal. (It’s this crazy rayon mesh intended for origami that I use in mail art collage.) Lastly, I have an Inkling to award. A member in England sent a letter with a link I’m going to share on the blog; since it’s something for the community, they earned themselves an Inkling. We use Inklings as a way to encourage members to do more for the letter writing world, above and beyond just writing letters.
