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Syme’s Letter Writer

Our interview with Rachel Syme about the case for handwritten letters in our digitized world Rachel Syme, journalist, culture critic, and staff writer at the New Yorker “loves” a beautiful hand-written letter. …

May 21, 2025 - 17:55

Our interview with Rachel Syme about the case for handwritten letters in our digitized world

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Syme’s Letter Writer

Our interview with Rachel Syme about the case for handwritten letters in our digitized world

Julie Wolfson

21 May 2025

Rachel Syme, journalist, culture critic, and staff writer at the New Yorker “loves” a beautiful hand-written letter. Her fondness for The Jolly Postman and quest for post-summer camp pen pals led to a lifetime interest in letters, a writing career and her new book, Syme’s Letter Writer: A Guide to Modern Correspondence.

The book takes a deep dive into the world of letters, exploring the many manifestations this form of writing can take. “You’re creating an archive. You’re able to process what’s going on in the world,” she says. “So much of the great history that we have comes from people’s correspondence back when that was the only way people could communicate with one another.” In the modern world where there are so many options for instant communication, Syme makes the case for the slower, more personal form for making connections. She is also a strong proponent of “don’t forget to write a thank you note” for everything.

The cover of Rachel Syme's Letter Writer book — Illustrations and artwork by Lise Sukhu / Courtesy of Random House. Reprinted with permission from Syme’s Letter Writer: A Guide to Modern Correspondence About (Almost) Every Imaginable Subject of Daily Life, with Odes to Desktop Ephemera and Selected Letters of Famous Writers by Rachel Syme. Published by Clarkson Potter Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Syme’s renewed focus on letter writing can be traced back to the early days of the pandemic. Back in the isolating, confusing haze of 2020, many writers found solace and community on Twitter, logging on to communicate with each other without the pressure of editing flawless photos. For those of us working at home, staying engaged and creative could feel like a desperate flailing to find connection.

At the time, one of the writers I was following was Syme, already a devoted reader of her work for the New Yorker, where she covers entertainment and culture with a keen intellect and sharp wit. So when Syme tweeted the question, ‘who wants to write me a letter?’ I did not hesitate to reply. Addresses were exchanged and I drafted my first letter.

An illustration of a woman typing on a typewriter in Rachel Syme's — Illustration by Joana Avillez / Courtesy of Random House. Reprinted with permission from Syme’s Letter Writer: A Guide to Modern Correspondence About (Almost) Every Imaginable Subject of Daily Life, with Odes to Desktop Ephemera and Selected Letters of Famous Writers by Rachel Syme. Published by Clarkson Potter Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

A few weeks later, an envelope from Syme arrived in my mailbox; I took one look to understand the assignment. The envelope was collaged with flowers and sealed with wax. Inside was a handwritten letter, stickers, a postcard, and a window into something fascinating about my new pen pal. I discovered that Syme, who has profiled Julien Baker, Barbra Streisand, Jamie Lee Curtis and more recently reviewed Lady Gaga’s new album with a deep knowledge of her career and illuminating insights, also prefers retro chintz to high tech fabrics and lavish design over more minimalist aesthetics. So began our correspondence.

Inundated with requests for letters, Syme felt compelled to find a way to pair people who wanted to have a pen pal. She launched Penpalooza, cleverly using Elfster, a site created for secret santa exchanges, as a shortcut to efficiently matching people. Syme explains how this project was born out of a time of crisis, insecurity and instability. “There is something important about writing letters, in so much as you’re continuing to communicate, which is really important in a time of anxiety.” As the letters were being written and decorated and mailed around the world, many forming sweet friendships and strong bonds, an announcement that would surprise and delight her letter writing community. Syme, ever prolific and inspiring, was working on a book about …letter writing.

Syme’s Letter Writer: A Guide to Modern Correspondence, published by Clarkson Potter, came out in January 2025. Its colorful blue cover is complete with an illustration of an inkwell, Syme’s autograph, and an appropriately lengthy list of what can be discovered inside. Bursting with color and collage, the pages serve up a buffet of letter writing history, styles, how to’s, writing prompts, occasions, and even some pull-out stationery at the back. The page on how to write a letter about interesting times has a somber, typewritten newsprint feel. The love letter section feels like a Victorian valentine. With sections about hotel stationery, stamps, and even some advice for how to read a letter, it’s a Smorgasbord of ideas and creativity.

A spread in Rachel Syme's — Illustrations by Joana Avillez / Courtesy of Random House. Reprinted with permission from Syme’s Letter Writer: A Guide to Modern Correspondence About (Almost) Every Imaginable Subject of Daily Life, with Odes to Desktop Ephemera and Selected Letters of Famous Writers by Rachel Syme. Published by Clarkson Potter Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

“I realized how fun it would be to make something very fanciful and like an object that I would want to hold in my hands, much in the line of a lot of the books that I used to love when I was a kid,” says Syme. “But for adults, obviously, and I also was thinking about the fact that letter writing feels very tactile and needed to have some kind of tactile experience in a book about it.”

As the plans began to crystalize, Syme made one requirement for the project: to have to have at least one element that would come out of an envelope. So now on page nine, a vibrant envelope covered with flowers and foliage beckons ‘Open me!” with an introduction to the book in the form of a letter. Syme describes the book’s designer, Lise Sukhu at Carson Potter, as a genius. Syme went to Sukhu’s house with a giant box of letters. “A lot of the things in the book are inspired by letters that people send me,” says Syme. “This book is kind of a joint project between me and all my pen pals.”

The overall look of Syme’s Letter Writer jumps off the page with layers of detail and emotion. “I have always loved collage. I’ve always loved any kind of mixed media. It’s the way I make my letters look,” says Syme. “It looks a lot like me.” Influences range from Old Victoriana issues of Flair Magazine from the 1950s to the candy-colored world of the 1980s. “I want this to feel at times like it’s an object that you might find in The Frick, and then other times I want it to feel like Lisa Frank. The best version of it would be kind of an explosion of my brain, very floral, very feminine. I don’t really see a reason for a book like this to exist if it’s not gorgeous and inspiring.”

When asked about how growing up in New Mexico has influenced her affinity for maximalist style in décor, movies, and magazines, Syme replies,“Things are overwhelmingly beautiful, and there’s a lot of women there that have maximalist style. I grew up with a poster in my hallway, kind of like a New Yorker type cartoon of a woman who’s fallen over backwards because of the weight of all her turquoise necklaces. And it says, ‘Another victim of Santa Fe style’ on it.”

An illustration in Rachel Syme's — Illustration by Joana Avillez / Courtesy of Random House. Reprinted with permission from Syme’s Letter Writer: A Guide to Modern Correspondence About (Almost) Every Imaginable Subject of Daily Life, with Odes to Desktop Ephemera and Selected Letters of Famous Writers by Rachel Syme. Published by Clarkson Potter Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Chapters cover how to be a penpal, how to make fan mail, and how to write like a poet. She suggests writing topics from dreams and the weather to how to maintain mystique and develop a specific correspondence style. For sending letters while traveling, she suggests using the stationery from the hotel, which puts me into a tailspin. I am kicking myself that I have not been collecting and using hotel stationery and postcards all along.

Whimsical drawings by Joanna Aviles compliment the lavish imagery. “She is my favorite illustrator, so the fact that she did the book was a huge win. Her work enlivens the book and keeps it kind of fanciful to have that illustrative quality that I always liked,” says Syme, who shared some prompts for illustrations with Aviles. “But, that picture of me on a Devon in a caftan with my dog, Pierro. I mean, that’s all her. Then she came up with that incredible thing with the typewriter flowing over the top of the page. So great! She also did her own spin on the Lady Schaefer advertisement and on a bookshelf.”

There is something really good about doing something that a computer can’t do

“And I think it’s helpful to write out your experience of living through this time and what it feels like for you, and then you know that’s not just in your own journal, that you’re actually sharing it with somebody else,” she explains. “Letters are this place where you can still have a conversation with somebody that feels really important to me. It’s all the things that AI can’t replicate. AI could write a letter for you on ChatGPT, but it could never make a handmade collage with a glue stick and put it in the mail. There is something really good about doing something that a computer can’t do.”

If the people that attend Syme’s letter writing workshops are any indication, it shows that many are craving this kind of in person and tactile engagement. Syme’s dream for the project was always that somebody would buy the book for their teenager who would suddenly take up an interest in correspondence.

Syme writes letters at her beautiful vintage desk in Brooklyn, a practice that offers a respite from the stressful demands of daily life. “Letters are a form of writing that is graciously relieved of the burdens of time. I’m a journalist by day, so my life is sort of dictated by the drumbeat of deadlines,” she says.

“I want it to be something that makes you feel, oh gosh, I want to step up my game,” she says. Syme hopes the book will inspire readers to collect stationery, buy stamps, and explore the tangible art of hand-written correspondence.

Find the book at Indie Bound, and follow her on Instagram for letter writing workshops (Strand Book Store, Susana Alexandra, the New York Historical Society); and read Syme’s features at The New Yorker.