Letter Writers Alliance

Postlandia

No joke, way back in 2011, I wrote a post about a little blog that could called "Going Postal." Nowadays, it's known as Postlandia. (I, for one, support this re-branding choice. I am not the biggest fan of that phrase for obvious reasons.) The site's mastermind, Evan Kalish, has a bit of thing for Post Offices. According to the counter on the blog, he's visited 9,288 of them so far. Both the blog and his Instagram are great rabbit holes for those of us who are postally-preoccupied. I especially enjoyed his recent journey to the post offices of St. Croix where he surprised me by crossing over into one of my other favorite Instagrams. (They got to hand-cancel their own mail at the P.O. Color me jealous!) The postal world is a small one after all!

P.S. Photo from the Postlandia Instagram.

Letters of Support for Christchurch

It was with wounded hearts we learned of  the terrorist attack against Muslims in Christchurch. The Letter Writers Alliance has an active presence within Christchurch, and while we didn't know anyone directly affected, we do have many friend and pen pals in the area. One of our friends heads up the Christchurch Letter Writers Society and she reached out to us with her idea for showing support to her community. She'd been contacted by a few people from our international letter writing community regarding how best to send written messages of support. While she isn't comfortable posting addresses of the mosques/local Muslim groups affected, she will accept any written messages of support via the Christchurch Letters Writers Society post office box. She will forward the cards and letters in a bundle via post, or possibly hand deliver them to the recipients.

The mailing address is:

Christchurch Letter Writers Society
PO Box 33036
Barrington Box Lobby
Christchurch 8244
New Zealand 

The Christchurch Letter Writers Society unequivocally stands with our Muslim friends, neighbors, colleagues as does the Letter Writers Alliance. It feels terrible when these things happen, but I gain so much life back from actions like these. Be kind. Try hard. Send love. Stamp out hate. Feel free to share this message.

 

P.S. Image from the P.S. Correspondence Society.

P.P.S. Christchurch Letter Writers Society has an Instagram as well.

P.P.P.S. Stamp Out Hate stickers are still available for free via S.A.S.E. and will be restocked soon. 

Directory of Letter Writing Societies

Megan of the Colorado Correspondence Coalition has given everyone an incredible gift. She's complied a directory of letter writing societies, complete with map and links! MY HERO! You can see the directory here and also follow them on Instagram. This site, plus the calendar run by Taylor at Maple Post, are all the tools you need to find a group near you. What great resources these are! Thanks for your hard work. We all appreciate you and what you're doing for the mail community.

Calling All Calendars!

Taylor at Maple Post has really hit the ground running for 2019. She has taken on the mammoth task of trying to amass a calendar of all the letter writing events and important days during the year. What's more, she wants to share it with you! But first, she'll need to know what's up. So, send your tips, send your social dates, send your thanks to her directly, either electronically or the traditional way. If we all work together on this, it can be one amazing resource!

 

2019: The Year of the Postbox

It's also the Year of the Pig, but we aren't quite there yet. Hello, 2019! I hope everyone had a nice first day. Mine included mailing off the rest of my holiday cards, finishing a project, drinking a bottle of Prosecco and watching the Fellowship of the Ring. Pretty solid day, honestly. In any case, I also decided that 2019 should be the year that we all embrace or renew our efforts to love our local postbox. Here in the U.S., a mailbox needs to receive 25 pieces of mail a day in order to remain active. That's not insignificant. I don't even do 25 pieces a day, normally. 

So, here's the challenge. Find yourself a mailbox. Make a pledge to use that mailbox for all your postings. When you visit it, snap a picture and tag it #2019yearofthepostbox and every so often, I'll do a round-up of our adopted member boxes. I'm also thinking about a sticker you can put on your own personal mailbox (not on the blue ones or official property, because I can't advocate vandalism) that states that it is supported by a member of the Letter Writers Alliance. What do ya'll think? What challenges are you taking on this new year? Happy 2019 everyone!

L.W.A. Book Club Newsletter Volume 2 Available

In case you didn't notice, the second edition of our L.W.A. Book Club Newsletter is available. You can download it or send in a S.A.S.E. This volume has our comments from our last book and the selection for our Winter reading as suggested by Member Rhea of the N Y C L W S. We're reading Meet Me at the Museum. Get cozy, everyone! Oh, and some clever ducks sent in S.A.S.E.s with their comment cards from the last newsletter. If you did that, your copy is already in the mail.

Letter Writing Clubs Round-Up

We are like the Proud Mama making you look at school photos of all of our progeny. Now, I'm not saying that these groups wouldn't exist without us. Heck, some may not even know we're around, and that's okay (it kinda smarts, but it's okay). But I want all of our members to know about them. Kathy and I cannot be everywhere, and we have always been of the opinion that the more letter writing groups out there, the merrier. I certainly may have missed some clubs in this posting; so if you know of others, please share in the comments!

L A Pen Pal Club

N Y C L W S

P. S. Correspondence Society

Guernsey Letter Writers Society  (They have a social on Monday, Nov. 5!)

Christchurch Letter Writers Society

Secret Society of Letter Writers

Lonely Pencil Club

S F Correspondence Society  (Has a social this Sunday, Nov. 4!)

Melbourne Letter Writers Society

Coastside Letter Writers Society

P D X C C 

Letter Writing Club  (Next social is on Nov. 7!)

Poulsbo Epistolary Club

Victorian Letter Writers Guild

A T L Letter Writers Society

Lonestar Letter Writers (Next meeting on Nov. 10!)

A Z Snail Mail Society

Spokane Correspondence Club

Little Rock Letter Writers League

Marfa Correspondence Society

Utah Letter Writing Club

Marin Correspondence Society (Next social this Saturday, Nov. 3!)

Correspondence Club 

Laramie Letter Writing Community

Letter Writing Club K S

Colorado Correspondence Coalition (Next meeting on Nov. 11!)

C L E Letter Writers Club

San Diego Letter Writers (Also meeting up Nov. 11!)

 

 

L.W.A. Book Club Newsletter Available!

It's here! It's here! The first L.W.A. Book Club Newsletter is arrived. You can download a copy here or get one by sending in a S.A.S.E. We've already gotten a slew of S.A.S.E.s and are busily mailing out hard copies. I'm very excited to try out this new method. Thanks for playing along everyone! Get reading and writing!

A Favorite Kickstarter

Fellow Chicagoan, friend, artist and all-around wonderful human Amber Favorite is holding a Kickstarter to move her studio into a community friendly space. She makes many things that I'm certain you all love. However, this isn't just about the neat rewards or the idea that she'll be in a good space to start new projects and products that we'll all want to buy. I post this here because the idea behind the new space is to be a community space. My number one woe on a regular basis is finding space to hold L.W.A. events and should this studio become a reality, I could see working closer with them to host workshops and socials. Their dreams build our dreams. Let's build them together.

Survey Says...

The good folks who organize Write_On would like your help with next year's event! There's a survey up til August 8th about how you participated and what else you'd like to see with the program. Give them your feedback if you have a moment! There's a prize opportunity too!

P.S. If you're in NYC on Friday, the Morgan Library is hosting the New York Letter Writers Society for a social.