Production Week Day One: Editing
By Arwyn Clayton and Elodie Edwards
Edited by Naomi Adam
With the release of The Letters Page, Vol. 6 rapidly approaching (mark your calendars for this Friday), we started this week of producing the limited 100 copies with a day of editing and arranging our 8 chosen letters.
Our dedicated team began the day by establishing recurring themes between the letters, trying to map a continuous path through the volume. To give you a sneak peek, some of our most commonly occurring themes were escape, nature, conflict, and connection. Though they all tie together wonderfully, the variety of content and tones in these letters truly offers something for everyone.
Fuelled by tea, coffee and biscuits, we then took on the task of editing and footnoting the letters, as well as brainstorming creative titles inspired by them. Some of the footnotes required a lot of research to decipher, from pop culture references to obscure places.
Although design day is tomorrow, we also got a first glimpse of the five alternative covers that will bind these lovely letters. These were created by three members of our team last week in collaboration with Studio INSTAR and add yet another layer of unique creativity to this incredible volume.
To encourage continuity, we took a look back at previous publications, from the very first to the recently published Volume 5, taking inspiration for the layout and design of our new edition.
Do keep an eye on The Letters Page website and social media for more updates on the process of creating the latest journal!
The Letters Page will be closed for submissions until late 2027, and won’t be in the office. But if you write to us your letters will certainly be kept safe and find their way to us eventually. It would, as always, be great to hear from you.
The Letters Page, School of English, University of Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK
See our submissions page for more information.
theletters.page 