Laura Marie Braun Loves The Letter Writers Alliance

By Venus Zine Staff
Published: September 28th, 2010 | 12:01am

I was recently admiring the back of an old Monkees record when I noticed the address for their fan club and wondered what would happen if I were to write to it now. As a kid, I loved joining fan clubs. The official membership cards and newsletters were always so exciting to receive in the mail and, if you were really lucky, you might even get hooked up with a pen pal.

Today, most fan-worthy entities have abandoned the snail mail approach for e-mail updates and Facebook groups, leaving the days of those “official” documents and well thought out letters long behind. That said, you can imagine my excitement when, at the recent Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago, I found a group dedicated to the art of letter writing. The Letter Writers Alliance is a club for people who, like me, have a surplus of stationery and are complete suckers for getting real mail. For a $3 membership, the Alliance will set you up with an official badge and your even more official membership card, which gains you exclusive access to their website.

The Letter Writers Alliance offers a sweet website chock full of free downloads of vintage-inspired extras for your letters and packages, as well as a store with no shortage of beautifully printed correspondence cards, stationery and some truly unique postal antiques. Best of all, if you think your friends won’t appreciate your sudden interest in sealing wax and par avion style envelopes, you can request as many pen pals as you like.

For more information on The Letter Writers Alliance, visit the official site.

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Laura Marie Braun is a Venus Zine editorial intern.