Snail Mail Links
Resources and interesting bits for people who love letters, postcards, and so on.
See also: Zine Links
Pen Pals & Letter-Friends
London Letters Pen Pal Club – £25.00 membership, they match you with a pal based on interests
Letter in the Post – £14.99 membership; you get a list of ALL members after joining, they don't match you personally.
Global Pen Friends – snail mail or email options, plus fun stuff like mail art swaps. Okay for kids! (Kids don't have adult penpals.)
International Pen Friends – 1 year membership is $25-35 for a single person (depends on age). They match you with 12-14 members, based around your age and interests. Obviously you can keep mailing each other after your membership ends. Found this funny note on the application page: “we are unfortunately unable to provide a penfriend list containing addresses of only male penfriends to people aged 18 years and older due to the demand for male penfriends currently exceeding our supply.” ?????
Sassociations – penpal personal ad directory; everything kinda just out in the open which feels a bit strange but it's also how we used to do things way back when, so…
r/penpals – Reddit group where you can post ads. They also have a one-off letter club if you just want a random letter without an expectation of an exchange.
Geek Girls Pen Pals – free, you sign up for specific rounds which happen each month.
The Letter Exchange – submit an ad to the newsletter to get pals; 3 issues published per year and a year's membership is $23.00 USD/$24.00 CAN/$26.50 int'l. Interesting privacy option: you can send your letters to the company for forwarding and not have to use your own address. More on that here.
Victorian Letter Writers Guild – group exchanges every month or so; $10 membership for a year. Women only!
InterPals – virtual penpals, emphasizes language practice.
Epistolia – free(?), host matches you with a pen pal and you have 15 days to send a letter.
League of Extraordinary Penpals – $42 USD annual membership, or else $7 USD monthly.
Prison Letters
Black and Pink Penpal – exchange letters with prisoners (one of the few on here that allow it).
Lifelines to Solitary – another prisoner letter exchange program, focused on prisoners in solitary confinement.
Postcards
PostCrossing – send postcards to people around the world, and get postcards from people! Free except for postage.
r/PostCardExchange – Reddit group for postcard exchangers.
Local Letter-writing Clubs and Events
Directory of Letter Writing Societies – find local groups
AZ Snail Mail Society (Arizona) – events every so often.
Colorado Correspondence Coalition (Boulder, CO) – monthly meet-ups.
The Snail Mail Revolution (Chicago, IL) – monthly events & swaps.
Christchurch Letter Writers Society (Christchurch, NZ) – bi-monthly meet-ups, perhaps?
Coastside Letter Writers Society (Half Moon Bay, CA) – monthly meetups at the local library.
LA Penpal Club (Los Angeles, CA) – monthly meetups, sometimes more often.
Portland Correspondence Co-Op (Portland, OR) – monthly events every third Thursday.
Puget Sound Correspondence Society (Seattle, WA & Tacoma, WA) – twice-monthly events, one in each town (roughly).
Tampa Bay Letter Writers – $50/yr for membership, meets monthly the last Saturday of the month at The Paper Seahorse store.
Toronto Letter Writers Society – monthly events hosted at Toronto's First Post Office.
Wonder Pens Letter Writing Club (Toronto, O.N.) – monthly events, $10 CAD to reserve a spot and then you get a $10 gift card when you show up.
Letter Writing Club (Vallejo, CA) – monthly meet-ups, check their Instagram for locations and dates.
The Regional Assembly of Text Letter Writing Club (Vancouver, B.C.) – First Thursday of every month; free, including supplies!
Mail Art, Swaps & Such
Swap-Bot – exchange packages of things (mostly art supplies), or letters/postcards/etc. I actually used to use this website maybe 20 years ago as a teen, so it's great that it's still around now. omg my login still works and everything.
Snail Mail Friends – basic membership is free, you need swap credits to do swaps which you can purchase. Yearly membership with unlimited swap credits is only $14.99.
Perfect Strangers – parcel-swapping website that runs seasonally. Might be stagnant as they haven't updated since 2024.
International Union of Mail-Artists (Ning Group) – free group to exchange artsy mail! The main website is here.
Mail Art Projects – blog with listings of different projects and events for mail art enthusiasts.
Other Stuff
Letter Writers Alliance – now closed letter-writing club, but they have some nice downloads still available including a great folding envelope/letter printable and fabulous artistamps.
LetterMo – write letters in February!
Mail Artists Index – listing of international mail artists, with biographies.
Mail Art Networking – mail art projects; not updated since 2024?