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keepwritingproject.bsky.social
keep writing project
@keepwritingproject.bsky.social
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a monthly letterpress postcard subscription since 2008. 💌 chief correspondent: hope (they/them) @hopeamico.com archive assistant: leslie (they/them) @oneironaut17.bsky.social
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Since 2008, the Keep Writing project has mailed a monthly postcard that is one part art, one part ask. Conceived, designed, and printed by Hope Amico, subscribers expect a handcrafted card and a thoughtful prompt for response in their mailbox.

Subscriptions are $72/year.
Letterpress printed with polymer plates, using words in Travis’ handwriting, on
cranes letters on a borrowed Heidelberg Windmill Letterpress.

if you want your chance to participate you gotta sign up! buff.ly/ynbjKdZ
I am inspired to be as honest as I can manage with friends, to be open, to continue to grow.

I’ve been thinking lately about how you don’t always know whose lives you touch,
and I continue to meet and connect to people who knew him.
Though there was also no card for response, I promoted recipients to write to an
old friend and ask: how are you? Really?

I’ve been thinking lately about how you don’t always know whose lives you touch,
and I continue to meet and connect to people who knew him.
It was crushing to lose him, to learn what he might have been like in his last year, how little I knew.

I printed this card and shared with friends and mourners at his memorial. I mailed
it to anyone who asked. I keep it on a shelf still, nine years later.
Only in his last weeks did he share his struggles with alcoholism directly.
After he died, reading through the old texts, I found numerous references to
drinking, wine bottles, and a new start. I felt foolish and stupid and wondered what had I missed or misunderstood in our friendship.
May we all stay in touch and lead many lives.

A wish for a connected future.

We were penpals for fifteen years, met up in different cities, shared books, talked
about relationships and writing and plans.
KEEP WRITING no 78
September 2015
May we all... lead many lives.

When Travis died, I knew I wanted to print something for him, something to share
with friends at the memorial I would be attending in New York. I sifted through
letters and zines and finally came upon this wish for our younger selves:
Experimenting is the way to grow.
Careful eyes may notice I finally started numbering the cards on the back, so
when you respond to me, I know which card it is. Oof.

Letterpress printed with polymer plates on cranes letters on a borrowed
Heidelberg Windmill Letterpress.
I think this phrase can read like it is telling you to buck up! Don’t be sad! That’s not it though: be sad. When you are full of energy again, reach out, support your pals.

I was loving the pink and brown combo and again, I liked the gradient background.
I often try things a few ways.
KEEP WRITING no 77
August 2015
What keeps you going when you’re down

I love this card but I think the wording was often misleading. You tell me: it is
meant to say, you have to take care of yourself first. You can’t be depressed or
sick and help others.
Letterpress printed with polymer plates on French Paper on a borrowed
Heidelberg Windmill Letterpress.

if you want your chance to participate you gotta sign up! buff.ly/ynbjKdZ
For this card I also used an illustration from Sol Weiss and a quote from Walter
Peyton, because we share a birthday (thank you 80’s newspaper for that
information years ago). When I discovered that this former Chicago Bear’s
nickname was “sweetness”, well, how could I resist?
Tucked into a lot not too far from my house in West Oakland was a small urban
farm. They started in a garden just two blocks behind my house. I walked over on
the weekends to buy produce and small bouquets of flowers. They also helped
residents build raised planter boxes, way before the pandemic.
KEEP WRITING no 76
July 2015
The best thing in your neighborhood

When I lived in Oakland, I struggled to find the kinds of friends and community I
had in New Orleans. But sometimes I would find something sweet that reminded
me of my favorite city.
I sure over inked the heck outta the text with oil based ink and maybe, going
forward I will switch back to rubber because I am clearly not careful enough.
Letterpress printed with polymer plates on French Paper on a borrowed
Heidelberg Windmill Letterpress.
Ok print nerds aside, a bit of wisdom from the great Joan Rivers. Sorry everyone,
things are often hard. But you learn to handle it, how and when to fight, how to
cope, when to let go. Like Kenny Rodgers (hey wait, is the Gambler about more
than poker? Is it about life?)
KEEP WRITING no 75
June 2015
YOU get better

Why no question this month? Because sometimes I want a break.

And I wanted to print a gradient like the background, something you can’t do on
platen presses with an ink disk.
A grain of inspiration, a few tools and tricks and here we are.

I don’t see it at the time but writing these posts sure helps me reflect.

I love a fill-in-the-blank too.

Printed with polymer plates on French Paper using copper ink because why not, on a borrowed Heidelberg Windmill Letterpress.
In one of these classes, a teacher said: you are not a human being having a
spiritual experience, you are a spiritual being having a human experience. And I
took notes. And made a collage. Because that is how I roll. Literally. This is how all
my prints get made.
This roundabout path allowed me to develop as a teacher with the support of teachers like Jenifer Meek, who taught me so much about inclusion and accessibility.