Choosing the Letters for Volume 6

by Emma Cassie

Edited by Chloé Rose Whitmore and Hannah Laker

“More than kisses, letters mingle souls” — John Donne. 

I can’t say that I have received many letters in my life. I’ve never really had cause to write one myself either, except for the sheer novelty of it. And it is a novelty now. Gone are the days where sending letters was as mundane a task as sending a text, though I suppose that is what makes it feel even more special.  

This week we began our journey of reading the submissions that our lovely readers have sent into us here at The Letters Page. Envelopes of all different sizes, shapes and colours were scattered across our desks. Some with untidy scrawls or neatly looped writing, floral stamps and Star Trek stickers, some in heavy A4 packets and some with tiny scribbles on torn out pages. What struck me most was how much personality each letter conveyed before we even read a word. (We did read them of course.)  

A great thing about letters is just how versatile they are— there is so much freedom in the form. Is it this freedom that makes people feel as though they can bare their heart and soul in ink on a page? Already we have seen such a diverse range of writing. We have read short stories, memories, heartfelt confessions, love letters, even a rather out-of-place CV. They are incredibly satisfying to tear open, almost like Christmas presents. In the office the quiet sounds of intense reading were accompanied by the crinkling of paper and the tapping of keyboards as we noted down our thoughts, justifying which might fall into the ‘maybe..’ pile. Looking at a large stack of letters, there’s no way of telling which unassuming envelope could contain the most glorious of hidden treasures, or whether there’s a beautifully written jewel currently sitting in the back of a van or being flown across the world or deposited into the nearest post-box on someone’s way to work, soon to find its way to our desks. It’s an experience that we here at The Letters Page have come to cherish and we cannot wait to share our amazing finds with our readers with the publication of our Volume 6 this year.  

We are still currently accepting submissions and would love to read your stories, poems, confessions, essays, or memoirs… as long as it’s in letter form, we want to read it! If you have a letter you would like us to read, or fancy writing something new for us, check out the submissions section on our website for a chance to be published in Volume 6! We cannot wait to spend more long afternoons in the office reading your letters, so keep them coming! And if you simply cannot wait for Volume 6, you can read the letters from our much-loved Volume 5 on our website. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we did. 

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The Letters Page team are back in the office, and ready to read your real letters again. We publish stories, essays, poems, memoir, reportage, criticism, recipes, travelogue, and any hybrid forms, so long as they come to us in the form of a letter. We are looking for writers of all nationalities and ages, both established and emerging.

Your letter must be sent in the post, to :

The Letters Page, School of English, University of Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK.

See our submissions page for more information.

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