Postcrossing Blog

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

It’s July now, so here in the UK most university students have just finished with their exams, schools are winding down ready for the summer, and we’re all complaining it’s too hot. (Or, if it isn’t warm, we’re complaining about the rubbish summers we get in this country. It’s a national sport.) So for a lot of us, it’s time to think about how we’re going to put our feet up and relax.

For me, not too surprisingly if you’ve seen my other posts on the blog, my primary way of relaxing is to spend time reading. I have a magpie mind and I’ll try pretty much anything once, so I read all sorts: sci-fi, fantasy, mysteries, romance, science, history… My special favourites are the British Library Crime Classics. I even have a subscription with the British Library so they send me the newest book each month.

The other main thing I do during my downtime is play Final Fantasy XIV. It’s an MMORPG, so there’s a main storyline (which I’ve finished), lots of side stories (which I’ve barely begun) and various different levels of difficulty. Pictured is my character hanging out with the with one of the mail “moogles”, a little creature that delivers mail in the game. In one of the sidequests, you take on the mail moogle’s job and deliver mail, eventually earning yourself a postal worker’s hat… I’m still working on mine, though!

How about you? What do you do to relax? Are you looking forward to a quieter summer after finishing exams, like me? We’d love to hear from you via comments, but you can also use this prompt to help you write postcards this month!

I’ve been promising for a while that I’d write a review of Emmi Itäranta's The Moonday Letters. This one’s a bit different from the other books I’ve reviewed here so far, since it’s a sci-fi novel written in the form of letters, set in a future where humans have left Earth and colonised Mars. The main character, Lumi, is from Earth, and writing letters to her partner, Sol, while they’re parted.

The book is a bit of an “eco-thriller”, but from the sidelines—we see it from Lumi’s point of view, and she’s not really in the thick of it anyway, she’s just deducing what’s going on from the outside. I think it’ll also read as a fantasy novel for most readers, given the shamanic-type elements of how Lumi does her healing and also interacts with the world. It’s an interesting mix, and one that I didn’t quite like myself (though I know plenty of people who would find it very exciting!).

I’ve talked before about how I love the way letters reveal personality, but there’s a downside to letters which I think kind of gets at what my problem was with the book. Letters are usually written after things happen. You can get a little mileage over a letter interrupted by events and resumed later, but it’s pretty rare for someone to be able to actively write a letter while things are happening.

It’s also a difficult way to get a good grasp of characters and situations. Personally, when I’m writing a letter, I don’t include a lot of physical detail about what I’m doing and how I do it. If I write to my grandmother that I’m done with my exams, then I wouldn’t describe the process of actually taking the exams too much—but in a novel, that description is exactly what you want to see! Itäranta has been careful to include quite a lot of description, to help characters and situations come alive, and I think it made the book less credible as a collection of letters (much as I like a good epistolary novel). She wouldn’t need to describe certain things to her partner: they’ve both seen them, and even if they hadn’t, there’s no need to write to this level of detail.

So that for me kind of spoiled the immediacy of the novel and the “authenticity” of the letters—I didn’t really “believe” (in the context of the story) that these were letters, which is sad, because letters as a form can do so much.

This all makes it sound like I really didn’t like the book, though, and that’s not quite true. Despite feeling the description didn’t seem “realistic” for letters, there’s some beautiful imagery, and I found the idea of the story fascinating. The author chooses to end the story on a pretty ambiguous note, which I also thought was brave and interesting; it might make it a little less satisfying, for some, but I thought it was a nice touch.

Overall, as you can see, not a total winner for me, but I don’t regret spending the time on it!

Next time, I’ll be reviewing a book I’ve wanted to talk about for a while, Lydia Pyne’s Postcards: The Rise and Fall of a Social Network. I put so many little sticky notes in this one! I’ve also promised to review Lynne Kolze’s Please Write, which just came out… and I have a post-related classic mystery called Post After Post-Mortem, by one of my favourite Golden Age crime writers, E.C.R. Lorac, which I’ve been saving for a rainy day and a Postcrossing review. So there’s plenty to come!

Rachel Ignotofsky is a New York Times Best-Selling author and illustrator.

Rachel’s first book, Women in Science (2016), was published as a postcard box set in 2017. Her newest book-inspired postcard set, Women in Art, hit shelves in 2022. Thousands of these cards have since traveled between postcrossers’ mailboxes and inspired us to learn how our foremothers made a difference in the world.

This spring, I was able to catch up with Rachel via web-stream from the big red chair in her California studio.

Tell us about your studio. What might surprise us about the space?

I always end up taking over the living room because it’s the biggest room in the house. I have these two giant bay windows that go out to the patio. I open them up while I’m working and I can hear the birds. I have four screens going at once – a big iMac and a 6K display, and a drawing table that’s set up at an angle with a very large iPad. I go back and forth between typing and using a track-pad with my left hand and drawing with a Logitech pencil with my right. Ergonomic stuff that I’ve learned over the years, to protect those joints!

And next to all that is a laptop that’s playing the Great British Bake-off. So, there’s a lot going on.

You obviously do a lot of research for each subject you cover – and then you narrow the content down to simple elements. Tell us about that process.

What’s great about illustration and graphic design is that you can do a lot of the storytelling with just a simple drawing.

For me, I always start with the research. The research informs everything that I’m going to draw.

When I was doing research for the “Women in…” series, for some of the women, there was a lot of information available, especially for the Nobel prize winners. But for some of the women who really made significant contributions, sometimes their obituary was where I would have to start research-wise, and through that I could find some primary sources to learn more.

One of the women I featured, Dr. Mamie Phipps Clark: her alma mater Columbia University did an amazing audio archive of her talking about her life. It’s hours long and she talks about her entire career and her childhood, and what was it like prepping for the Brown v. Board of Education case, and what it was like having her husband be the face of the operation. It was such a wonderful resource.

So, again, I start with all of that – and that informs how I’m going to organize the information. I know graphically how I want it to look. And in the back of my head, I have these buckets I’m trying to fill with text: What’s going to be in the bucket of the main 500-word write-up? Then what are going to be the fun facts: things that are relatable and sticky in our minds? Some pieces I want to be more revealing: what was their character like, or their childhood? For the main illustration, I want to have little elements of their style and career that inform the reader about who they are before they read a single word.

I write about topics that people – for example, those who aren’t in the sciences – might feel insecure approaching. But when I use graphics to teach them before they start reading, it gives them the confidence to start.

You’ve spoken about your learning differences and how when you were young, comic books helped you approach information in your own way. Can you tell us more about that?

When I was a kid, I really struggled with reading, and it wasn’t until I started reading densely illustrated nonfiction books – books like DK readers – that I felt successful. There was something about being able to bounce around the page in a non-linear fashion that allowed me to keep my attention long enough to actually read everything on the page.

When learning to read, I remember holding my hand up to the line and struggling to follow my finger to read every word in order. But illustrated books that are more playful and less linear allow you to explore as you read. I didn’t feel like I was breaking any rules by reading the way that I naturally wanted to on the page, and that gave me the confidence – and the excitement and joy – to keep reading.

I’m now working on an elementary book series that’s all about backyard biology – introducing kids to the science that they’re going to be learning in elementary school, but in this really fun way. You could read it straight through, or you could bounce around the page and explore and learn different terms. Like, look at what these worms are doing in the soil. It’s all about freedom and joy when I’m creating my work.

It’s also about reaching as broad of an audience as possible. You reach neurotypical people, and I’ve also gotten a lot of people who have emailed me and been like, my kid has autism and really likes your books. I’m always trying to reach a 10-year-old and someone with a PhD at the same time.

I love how your illustrations of women scientists show that science is about more than just test tubes. There are flowers and there’s lava – these ladies are super dynamic!

There’s still a lack of diversity in representation in science. But since this book came out in 2016, there’s been a lot of work done to have more representation in media – more people of color, different genders in science. But many people still don’t think about the diversity of career paths in science.

That was actually a metric I used to decide who was going to be in the book. It wasn’t all going to be chemists. It wasn’t all going to be people who discovered new elements. That’s why there are so many people from the natural sciences – so many botanists or conservationists like Rachel Carson and Sylvia Earle and Jane Goodall. Some are amazed that I put psychologists in as well, but I’m like, yeah, because they’re scientists.

I’m doing a new book series for elementary school science – it’s called the What’s Inside series. What’s Inside a Caterpillar Cocoon comes out in September. The cover has my version of an emperor moth. The book follows the journey of moths and butterflies. Everyone always writes about the monarch. Yeah, the monarch’s cool, but it’s a big Order of insects, guys.

Kids naturally are curious. They naturally are drawn to the sciences. It’s the rest of the world that tells them – that’s not science, this is science. Kids want to go outside and play in the mud, and they have questions about the natural world. Those questions are the curiosity that creates a young scientist. So if we can create resources that say yes, this is science – this is more than just playing with flowers and being an outdoor kid. It actually is the beginning of a very rich journey. I’m hoping it sparks young kids to be more scientifically literate in the future, whether or not they choose that as a career path.

Can you tell us about your relationship to snail-mail? And to postcards specifically?

I only had one “real job” before working for myself, and it was 4 years working for Hallmark Greeting Cards. Cards, paper product, and snail mail is where I cut my teeth as a professional designer. It was my internship junior year, and then I got the job right out of college. I made an entire line of cards called Studio Ink that had, like, hot dogs with smiley faces that said, I’m a weenie, happy birthday!

At Hallmark, it was all about this idea of, how do you make something that’s so general that it applies to everyone, but it feels specific – like it only applies to you. That is something I’ve applied to my entire career. When I make a book, I want it to be able to relate to everyone but when people pick it up, I want them to think, wow, someone made the perfect book just for me.

I do send snail mail. I have a big stack of thank you cards. I used to send more snail mail when my grandparents were alive; I would send them cards constantly because they loved them so much. Now I am always mailing my friends and family packages. I’m big into package mailing. I also run a shop so literally I’m at the Post Office once a week. When the PO people know you and how you’re doing – that’s thumbs up.

We celebrated Mother’s Day last month in the USA — were there any striking themes around parenthood that emerged from the biographical stories you researched for the Women in… series?

I know my work is often read together with parents and their kids. I love to put in fun facts and moments that they can bond over. For example, when Primatologist Jane Goodall began her field research, she took her mom with her on her earliest trip to Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve. Vera Rubin is the astronomer who discovered the first real proof of the existence of dark matter, and her love of astronomy started when she built her first telescope with her dad! There are intergenerational moments of love and support throughout, which I think is very special.

Do you have a character or idea that has yet to make it to the page?

I have to be quiet about my ideas. I can tell you I’m about to work on a new book that’s all about dinosaurs and prehistoric life. And I just wrapped my last project – What’s Inside a Bird’s Nest? I got to draw the embryo development inside the egg. I like it when I get to draw gross things and make it pretty.

How do you know when a piece is finished?

When it’s due. You could work on something forever if you wanted to and really nitpick yourself. When it comes to being a professional artist, discipline is the name of the game. That’s what takes it out of the hobby space and into the professional space. A level of discipline that tells you to work when you don’t want to work, and also to put down the brush when you need to put down the brush.

To learn more about Rachel and her work, check out her website, where you’ll find free downloads as well as links to previous interviews she has given. You might also enjoy this live art demo with the New York Times! Her postcard sets can be found at Penguin Random House’s website and through a number of other popular retailers.

For those who’ve made it all the way to the end, we have a giveaway for you: Clarisse is planning to send 4 postcards from Rachel Ignotofsky’s sets to 4 randomly picked postcrossers! 🎉 To participate, leave a comment below sharing the remarkable contributions of a woman from your country — someone who you would like to see being featured on a postcard. Check back this time next week for the winners!

It probably doesn’t come as too much of a surprise to learn that here at Postcrossing we’re really interested in all things postal. There’s a fascinating topic in the Postcrossing forum about how people’s post offices look, allowing glimpses of how different it can be in different communities and different countries. We’ve asked some of the posters for permission to use their photographs, but you can check out the whole thread on the forum to see lots more!

It was difficult to choose which photos to include here, but in the end I thought I’d highlight some of the photos which show how different post offices can be the world over, from a little desk tucked into the corner of a local shop to a custom-built building just for the mail.

For example, in Hanna, Alberta (Canada) the entire town get their mail by coming to this post office building full of personal boxes. Jill (aka Borborhick) explained that it’s open 24/7, with a desk that’s open during the week for picking up and sending parcels, buying postage, etc.

On the other hand, here’s a little post office that’s set up in someone’s house, in Wales, UK. I didn’t actually know there were still any post offices in the UK like this, run from someone’s home, so this was an intriguing find for me. Mary (aka maripost) explained a little about about what it’s like: there’s one counter position, which is busy most of the time, and she knows most of her customers since she grew up in the village. It looks lovely!

Another lovely thing about the thread is the number of nice (and often old) buildings that post offices live in. Brenda (aka BrendaVR) took some lovely ones of her local post office in Ontario (Canada), the Walter Street Post Office. Here’s the one that first struck me, showing the entrance and a sort of mini clocktower at one corner:

Speaking of older buildings, here’s a rather classic-looking doorway of a post office in Oxford, UK! This picture was taken by Christine (aka travellingsheep). The building is from 1879, and I’d love to get a closer look at all that detail above the door…

My attention was also caught by a post from Thisura (aka TazocinWilson) in Sri Lanka, about the post office in his community, Cinnamon Gardens (a former cinnamon plantation). Established in 1905, Thisura called it a living museum, saying that the mail is still collected in leather bags, sorted by hand, and stamped by hand with ink (rather than a franking machine). The red brickwork against the white columns is a really pleasing look!

Contrast that with this more plain building spotted by Justyn (aka vireolanius) in the US…

Though in fact inside Justyn spotted a lovely detail: a quilt hung on the wall that says “Thank you for using Priority Mail”. It’s an unusual decoration, giving a surprisingly homey look to the inside of the building, but it looks really nice!

To close, here’s something a little different! Kanerva talked about the fact that Finland has very few actual post offices, and lots of “postal partners” where postal services are offered by corner shops, etc. There’s just one post office in Northern Finland, and that of course is Santa’s main post office, at the Arctic Circle! Kanerva took a few photos to show what it’s like.

One neat detail is these postboxes. One takes normal mail that can be sent anytime, but the other takes mail that will actually be sent in December (regardless of when you put it in the box). A nice way to set up a surprise for someone…

These are just a few glimpses of different post offices, so don’t forget to check out the full topic… and maybe add some of your own photos? We’d love to see!

PS: Just as Nicky was finishing preparing this post some weeks ago, a fire devastated Manila’s Central Post Office in the Philippines, an historical building over nearly 100 years old. An irreparable and tragic loss of a national landmark, and a part of Manila’s cultural heritage and history. 💔 Please cherish and use your local post offices! -Ana

June is here, and you know what time it is… it’s time to open the submissions for the World Postcard Day design contest! October 1st is getting closer and closer, which means it’s time to ask all aspiring designers and illustrators to pick up their drawing tools and start designing the postcard that will represent this year’s World Postcard Day! 😊

The theme of 2023's postcard design contest is “Postal Hugs”, inspired by Annie in Wisconsin. Some years ago for the 150 Years of Postcards exhibition, she sent us a wonderful postcard that read “A postcard is a hug sent through the mail”. This simple mental picture is exactly how we think about postcards: like an extension of our arms, ready to hug a recipient far away!

Hopefully the Postcrossing community and beyond will be inspired to create something amazing for this year’s postcard, so that in October we will all be able to send a beautiful postcard all over the world!

Before you submit a design, please make sure to read the rules carefully. Designs can be submitted (in digital form only) until July 15 (UTC) on the contest page, and we’ll announce the winner until August 15.

And, as usual, there are some prizes! Besides the glow and recognition of having your design be the one that so many people will be sending all around the world on October first, we’re also giving away a fantastic Wacom One drawing tablet, as well as a Pantone postcard box. May the best design win!

Even if you’re not brilliant at drawing, we hope you’ll help us spread the word about the contest and poke your creative friends to participate… especially if they are aspiring artists and could use a little boost getting their career started and to put their art out there. We can’t wait to see how everyone will interpret this year’s theme!