Penpals

My pen pal, Jane, sent me this photo which is a picture from her farmhouse in rural France. Doesn't it look like a postcard? I thought so too.

Jane and I found each other through one of the pen pal magazines that are published and we've been corresponding for about two years now.

In addition to some close friends who I write to, I have a few other pals- all from the US and, once in awhile, I will hear from one in Norway. As much as I love letter writing I've had to cut back while I focus more on starting the magazine, Letters & Journals. But I still enjoy writing 1-2 letters a week. Sometimes more.

If you want to send (receive) mail, but don't want a pen pal, here are two websites that are all about getting mail!
We Love Snail Mail
Send Something

But if pen pals are what you're after, check out any of these Pen Pal magazines/newsletters:

Inky Trail News
The Letter Exchange
International Pen Friends

There is also one called Pen Pal Connection published by Dawn Thomas. Her email address is ppcdawn@yahoo.com

There are also many pen pal groups in places like MSN, Yahoo, Google, etc, so you can check those out too.

Internet Brings Letter Writers Together

People say that email has killed letter writing, but the fact is that people still write letters. Not everybody writes letters, but they didn't before either. When television came into our homes they said it would the end of radio, but it wasn't. To survive each medium must find a new way to invent itself.

I think the internet is helping to bring letter writers together. There are many web sites and blogs that promote letter writing and share the appreciation of the hobby. Here are some of the sites that I enjoy and a little bit about each one.

Missive Maven posts pictures of the mail she sends and receives and she explains what it is and how she got it. It makes you want to send her mail (her address is on the site) to see if she will publish and write about the mail you sent. She has mentioned my blog a couple times and has sent many people to take the quick letter writing and journal writing surveys that I'm conducting to gather feedback for the Letters & Journals magazine. If you have not taken it yet. I would greatly appreciate getting more feedback.

Inky Trail News is a bi-monthly newsletter that you can subscribe to if you're looking for penpals or interested in reading light articles about the hobby of writing letters as well as general interest articles written by some of the subscribers. Wendy is the publisher and she also has a blog and a web site.

Carla, at 365 Letters, is writing a letter a day for 2009. She has some interesting insights and articles that she links to on her blog. Carla's most recent blog has this wonderful note:

“Why are you capable of imagining a world without letters? ... A universe in which all is said dryly, in abbreviated fashion … without art and without grace?” (Pedro Salinas, 1948, quoted in Ivask, 1990.)

And there are many groups at Yahoo, MSN, Google that promote letter writing, friendship books, mail art, postcard swaps and so much more. So don't believe that the love and art of letter writing is dead. It is not.