WHO
Dead Letter Club is a Creative Social Movement built from the heart and mind of Melanie Knight in Melbourne, Australia. DLC has been growing since 2015 and is now spreading around the world letter by letter.
I READ THE WEBSITE AND I STILL DON’T GET IT
That’s ok! It’s us, not you, promise. The description is intentionally unclear - just enough to get you curious, not enough to give away the mystery. Dead Letter Club is an experience that runs over a couple hours, in a venue. It’s a parlour game, that happens under the direction of Leader who reveals the process of the game throughout the night.
You’ll be surrounded by awesome people, and guided the whole way through.
SO AM I WRITING LETTERS?
Yes, you will be writing letters. As made up characters. Nom de Plumes. Epistolary fiction. And you won’t know who you’re corresponding with. But they WILL be in the same room as you. And you’re not writing the entire time. The DLC is broken up into sections as the letters fly around the room. In the in-between you get to hang out, eat, drink, socialise, scroll.
WHAT IF I GET STUCK?
We got you! There are hundreds of prompt cards everywhere for you, and your Facilitators are at the ready to give you a nudge. It’s letter writing, not essay writing, not novel writing! Pick up a pen and let the ink flow - something akin to conversation, but on paper.
You can also follow the DLC Instagram and Facebook to see other letters, or watch them being read out on YouTube!
WHY DEAD LETTER CLUB, IS IT ABOUT DEAD STUFF?
No way! It can be if that’s what you choose to write about, but otherwise no. Mel has come up with some pretty naff names for the concept back in 2014. Mel’s passionate for letter writing lead to researching the postal service. The Dead Letter Department or Dead Letter Office was a part of most postal services around the world, including Australia.
The DLO was usually in the basement of a large postal building, a place where misaddressed mail, undeliverable parcels and unidentified contacts ended up. Sometimes collecting dust for many years, unclaimed and never known. Pretty tragic eh! Sadly, due to the decrease in the postal service the DLO was one of the first departments to get the chop. This is Mel’s nod to that part of letter writing history. (And it’s a very cool name for a club.)
WHY DO YOU KEEP THE LETTERS?
A few reasons. There is a consent form when you play DLC, it is a consent form. Meaning you don’t have to give consent. We’ll still ask you to sign the letter so we can know for sure to never share the contents on your letter.
Melanie, the founder of DLC acts as custodian of the letters and does her best to give you complete copies of the correspondence. The issue that presented itself was which letter do you keep? The letters you write, or the letters you receive? And what if you embrace DLC for what it is, that ephemeral magic of connection through creativity and not even want to keep your letter?
Mel is passionate about advocating for creativity as a means for mental and social wellbeing. The Dead Letters are living proof of this. Being custodian means Mel can champion the wondrous efforts and creations that are made inside of DLC. Credit is always given when possible, and if you were stoked with what you wrote, you will get a copy of your correspondence (eventually).
THIS IS SO COOL AND WEIRD, HOW’D YOU DO IT?!
This is the question I get asked the most, and it makes me feel very special. I’ve worked passionately on developing this concept.
When I see the looks on peoples faces once the game has ended for the night I’m full of good vibes.
I’m an artist and expressive art therapist. I believe creativity is linked to our wellbeing. I believe creative is linked to critical and innovative thinking. I believe fostering our imagination develops compassion and empathy, without the ability to imagine how can we empathise?
I explore lots of modalities to help people connect back to their creativity. Play, novelty, no pressure, and connection are all spectacular ways to inspire creativity and get us out of the grind. Writing letters to my daughter, journalling daily, and reading Love in the time of Cholera (Gabriel García Márquez), and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows) all coalesced as I nutted out how to create an expressive writing project.
Fun fact: I used to test the exchange of letters with my daughters dolls before I went public.