The Letters Page

The Letters Page in production made by the team at University of Nottingham, editor Naomi Adams, and Studio Instar led by Trish Evans.

Over the years, I have maintained a bunch of postal correspondences and its been one of the ways that I have navigated life. When I read that the post boxes were being removed from the streets of Copenhagen, I realised this was a loss for society. People will find ways, I’m sure, but an electronic mailbox is so obviously not an equivalent and although a journal has an overlapping purpose, it’s a conversation with oneself, so it that regard, quite different.

I sent The Letters Page my letter last August and didn’t think so much more about it. It’s a fun way of submitting work – there’s no online form with contact details. They state simply that they will find you and my hunch was that that would be by return of post (it’s my habit to write a return address – part of the pleasure of letter writing is the entire process, from pen to paper to lick, stick, return address and airmail mark). I won’t say more about that because the fun is in the mystery.

More than the mystery though, there’s been following their production on Instagram over the past couple of weeks, from lino cut printing to hand stitching pages. I gave consideration to process in the writing, where I went very much from observation to recognisable reflection, then trying to figure out how to send this in a letter format. In turn, they gave me feedback, letting me know why they chose the work and have honoured their selected writing with such beautiful craftsmanship, from editing, through design to printing. I can’t wait to see the finished work.