Do you remember the thrill of opening a letter? So many words, addressed only to you!
Before the age of the instant gratification of chat, friends wrote letters to one another. Eagerly awaited letters, written thoughtfully, often painstakingly; one could search hours for the right word, dwelling on how to describe this experience, that feeling, going through several drafts before finally sending the missive on its way. Or sometimes the words would flow in a burst, the pen trying to catch up with the stream of consciousness as it gushed onto a page; the letter would have to be sealed in an envelope immediately, before the writer could think twice about what they’d divulged.
Letters could be short, they could be long. They might meander, from the mundane to the personal, subjective, objective, dipping into one’s essence, trying to extract meaning from the broader context of a lebensraum. They could include photos wrapped inside, or tiny gifts, or candy. They might be funny, sad, angry, portraits of melancholy, grief, excitement, or rage. Or all of these at once. The letter was a canvas for myriad emotions. Or a screenplay where imagination ran rampant.
Letters often came from distant lands. They provided a connection that was otherwise impossible.
We believe in the power of letters. And we believe they should not be relegated to the past.
We replace the past tense, with the present.
It is with some trepidation that we share with you our letters. We do not know how you will react. They are letters of words, not on a page, but in voice. We address them to each other, but invite you to listen in. These are the letters of two friends, hundreds of miles apart, yet always growing closer.
Sincerely,
Amy & Szilvia
Amy was born and raised in smalltown southern Ohio. She became an American Field Service (AFS) exchange student her junior year of high school, which landed her in Ankara, Turkey. After completing college in the U.S., with a year in Berlin, Germany, she moved to Istanbul, where she has resided for the past twenty years. Amy is the co-founder and director of a literary agency, and a translator.
Szilvia Molnar is a writer, mother and the foreign rights director at a New York-based literary agency. Her writing has been published in Guernica, Lit Hub, Triangle House Review, Two Serious Ladies, The Buenos Aires Review, and Neue Rundschau among others. She is also the author of a chapbook titled Soft Split and is currently working on a novel. Originally from Budapest and raised in Sweden, she splits her time between New York City and Austin, Texas.