Pen pals are not chat. There is no online indicator. No typing-bubble. No emoji react. You write a letter, you send it, and a week or two later one comes back. The pace is the point.
The shape of it
- 01You fill in a short questionnaire about what you write, what you read, what you’d want to talk about. Free-text, not multiple choice.
- 02We pair you (by hand) with one other folk — usually in a different time zone, often in a different genre. Different lens.
- 03You write the first letter. Roughly 400-1,200 words. Anything that’d fit on two sides of nice paper.
- 04They write back. You write back. Whichever cadence you both like — but slower than you think. A fortnight is good. A month is fine.
- 05Either of you can end the correspondence at any time, without explanation. Some pairings just don’t take. That’s OK.
I write in the morning before the radio, and at night after the dishes.
What you write about
The work, mostly. Why you started. What you’re stuck on. Books that wrecked you. Sentences you’ve cut and miss. The first time you knew you wanted to do this. Whatever’s honest.
Members only
Pairings are reserved for members because we read every letter pair’s opening message by hand to make sure you’re a fit, and we can’t do that for free.