Hear from poet Kristie Landing on how she turned a passion project into a mail club that sends out 400+ hand-sealed letters a month.
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I definitely consider myself a writer. But then I also am very interested in material culture and visual arts. So with Verse and Sip, it’s kind of put everything together. And so I’m very thankful to be where I am today.
Kallie Falandays:
This is amazing. And tell us, for everyone watching who has no idea what Verse and Sip is, how would you describe it?
Kristie Landing:
Verse and Sip is a literary platform. It’s kind of encompassing of multiple different things. I started it as a mail club and then I started on social media, and that took off from a very early stage, which was really surprising because I’m very interested in analog practices and doing things by hand. Social media is the complete opposite, but that’s where I’ve really found this wide audience. So Verse and Sip is the mail club. It’s tutorials. I do typewriter poetry, and I do this at events and for people as custom poems. And I’ve also done some workshops and collaborations with artists and poets. So it’s become kind of a community really, which is great.
Kallie Falandays:
I love this. This is how you make money, right? Because what everyone watching is going to want to know is not what you do, but how they can do it and what’s the ROI. You make money from this, right?
Kristie Landing:
I do, yeah. My work with writing has been the way that I earn money for a while. And with Verse and Sip, just starting the mail club, I wasn’t expecting it to grow to where it is today, but it’s definitely now a source of income as well, which is great because that gives you motivation and more freedom to continue to expand it. I’m still doing other writing projects outside of Verse and Sip, but I’m putting a lot into Verse and Sip now.
Kallie Falandays:
I love that. There are a lot of people who see what you’re doing and think, oh my God, that’s my dream. So what advice do you have for them? And can we get into the practical side of it? When you talk about the mail club and building up social media, what did it actually take?
Kristie Landing:
I think it’s really hard when you’re building something at an early stage to stop and look at the process and the places you’ve been, because it’s happening very quickly and it’s a lot of hard work. I’m working all the time, but I’m doing what I love, and I think that’s the most important thing. When I started Verse and Sip, it was a passion project. I thought it would be a fun way to connect with people. I think I envisioned it maybe a month before and was like, I’m just gonna do it. I made a timeline, started the mail club, posted on social media, and it’s all kind of gone from there.
Everything takes time. I would like everything to happen very quickly, but it does take time to build, and I’m still learning and growing all the time. So that’s my advice: find what you love to do, and don’t be afraid to go after your idea. Put it out there, see if it works, and then just keep planting the seeds and see how they blossom over time.
Kallie Falandays:
That’s so cool. When you started the mail club, what did you think would happen? Did you think no one would care?
Kristie Landing:
I didn’t know, and really it didn’t matter to me that much in the beginning. I think I had maybe 15 or 20 members the first month, and to me that felt meaningful. I just wanted to create this thing. When it started actually growing, I was like, oh my gosh, this is just overwhelmingly wonderful, to be able to get this out to so many people and connect with them in a way that’s meaningful to me. I love getting mail, so being able to share that with other people has been really amazing.
Kallie Falandays:
When you do your mail, is every piece handmade, or are you making one handmade piece and then printing it? What’s the process?
Kristie Landing:
It’s a letter that I write, but then I type it, and then there’s a poem card that I have printed. I feature either my own poetry or other poets, so that’s been a really interesting process of working with other poets and sharing their work. I also include tea. Then I hand fold each letter in the Regency tuck and seal method, because I’m really interested in historical correspondence. I do a wax seal on every letter, and I write the addresses on every letter. So it’s quite time-consuming when I’m doing hundreds of these, and eventually I might try to have someone help me.
Kallie Falandays:
So how many members do you have? How many letters are you sending per month?
Kristie Landing:
It’s a couple hundred. I think it’s above 400 now.
Kallie Falandays:
Wow. You mentioned you’re seeing a resurgence of people wanting to connect with something more analog, something physical. What do you think is driving that?
Kristie Landing:
I think it’s the era we’re in, with the rise of AI and everything going digital and spending 10 hours behind a computer screen every day. I think people really want to take a step back and reconnect with themselves and read a physical book or write in their journal or send a letter. In a way, my interest in this came at exactly the right time, because all this digitization is only increasing, and I think it’s a quiet rebellion to not give in to that in every way possible. I think it’s really important to protect these historic practices we’ve been doing for hundreds of years that make us feel human and communicate with each other in a slow way.
Kallie Falandays:
Is there a difference for you when you write a poem by hand versus when you type it?
Kristie Landing:
It’s different. Honestly, what has really changed my poetry writing is getting a typewriter. Last year, I was asked to do a typewriter poetry event without having a typewriter. Someone I knew was like, you’re a poet, can you do this thing? So I rented a typewriter, did the event, loved it, and then got my own.
I think it’s helped me tap into a more intuitive way of writing poetry, where you can’t erase. You just sit down and go and see what comes out, versus on a computer where you can edit and I’ll be tweaking forever. It’s the same with writing in a journal, where you kind of have to stick with what’s there, although with journaling I still cross things out. With the typewriter, I’m like, this is it. I think that’s the biggest difference.
Kallie Falandays:
That’s really fun. What are you reading right now? You said you’re busy.
Kristie Landing:
I’m actually doing a really interesting collaboration for October for Verse and Sip with the author Bethany Joy Lenz. She’s written a Gothic Victorian novel, and it’s her debut novel. It’s about an American woman who comes to London. In the Victorian era they were very fascinated with death, so they used to have portraits after people died, and she’s a death portrait painter. It’s a really interesting story that’s coming out soon. And Bethany has written the Verse and Sip letter for October, so that’s the collaboration coming up.
Kallie Falandays:
That book sounds amazing. For people reading this who think, oh man, I want to get involved and become a collaborator, what should they do to reach out?
Kristie Landing:
I don’t have a specific process, but if they’re a poet and want to send me 3 to 5 poems to look at, or just email me or DM me on Instagram. I’m always open to showcasing other people’s work, and I think that’s one of the most important things I’m doing. It’s nothing without the other people creating this community. So I’m very happy to receive work from people.
Kallie Falandays:
And what’s your dream for what this community can become?
Kristie Landing:
To continue the way it’s been going. I’m in London, so I’d like to work with more heritage sites and explore all the wonderful archives and libraries this country has, because I’m very interested in the history of correspondence. I’d love to keep expanding the mail club. I also have a pen pal matching program where I match people around the world, which is really fun. And I’m working on a poetry pamphlet at the moment, so I think there are lots of opportunities.
Kallie Falandays:
I love this. If someone’s watching and thinking, how can I sign up, or what if I want to do something like this, what would you tell them?
Kristie Landing:
Definitely go for it. I think like anything else in the world, there’s a place for all of us, and this is such a wonderful moment for snail mail clubs and analog correspondence. If you have an idea, go see what’s out there and go for it. If you want to sign up, everything’s on the Verse and Sip website, and social media is a very easy way to reach me because I’m on there a lot.
Kallie Falandays:
Amazing. Thank you so much for being here.
Psst. Poets, Kristie is actively looking for work to feature. Send her 3 to 5 poems by email or Instagram DM.
Verse & Sip is a literary platform founded by Kristie Landing. Through a monthly Mail Club, tutorials, typewriter poetry, workshops, and collaborations with writers and poets, Verse & Sip explores new ways of bringing slow, analogue forms of connection into contemporary life.
Verse & Sip
Website: verseandsip.com
Instagram: @verseandsip
TikTok: @verseandsip
Facebook: @verseandsip
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