(please repost and repeat the information in the following letter on your blog and to your friends. I hope to conduct as many interviews as possible over the next three months)
Dear fans of Post Secret,
I am a graduate student in an MFA writing program where I am working on a memoir project involving three months of my life and my then obsession with Post Secret. The reason I am writing is because part of my current memoir project involves conducting semi-anonymous interviews with people who have interacted with Post Secret. Not just people who have sent in secrets like I have (although that would be great) but also with people who interact with the blog, online communities, go to Post Secret events or read the books.
What I mean by “semi-anonymous” interviews: I will be conducting these interviews primarily over email. I ask those volunteers who respond to give me a name (first with last initial is fine) but it need not be his or her real name. What is important to my memoir is that people be truthful in recalling their thoughts and emotions related to Post Secret, not that they divulge their identity—it is, after all, Post Secret.
Once again, I am ONLY looking for volunteers to respond to some or all of my questions; I cannot pay people. Over the next two to three months these interviews will occur entirely by email, and there may be some follow up emails sent to certain respondents to clarify or to ask for elaboration. These interviews are for a piece of creative nonfiction relating to my life and, while I am not seeking immediate publication, the piece may eventually be published with some of the volunteers’ responses in it. Any interview or part of an interview that appears in the memoir will be attributed to the fake/real name the volunteer has offered me.
Thank you for having read this far and I hope you will take the time to answer some/all of the following questions and email your responses to eileen.postsecretmemoir AT gmail DOT com.
1. How did you become familiar with Post Secret? How long ago was that?
2. Thinking about the secrets you’ve read, which one stand out in your memory? What’s memorable about that/those secret(s)?
3. Have you ever attended a Post Secret event? Why? What was it like?
4. Have you ever sent in a secret? How many? If more than one, over how long a period of time?
5. Have you ever seen one of your secrets again (on the blog/in the books, etc)? How did that make you feel?
6. Have you ever found a postcard with a secret written on it that was tucked inside of one of the books? What was that like?
7. Have you ever put one of your own secrets inside of a book? What was your reason for doing so?
8. Has there ever been a time where you’ve written a secret on a post card but kept the post card instead of sending it? Please elaborate as much as you are comfortable as to why you’ve hung on to it.
9. Why do you think you read other people’s secrets?
10. If you’ve sent in a secret, or many secrets, why did you send it in opposed to telling someone you knew or keeping it to yourself? What was your reason for sending it off to some place where strangers were going to read it?
Note: I am NOT asking anyone to explicitly state the content of their secrets unless that is something that you want to share. Any information sent to me may eventually be published.
Highly Recommended
