For ten years, Oregon Humanities’ Dear Stranger project has invited Oregonians to exchange letters with people they’ve never met. Since 2014, more than one thousand people have sent letters to Dear Stranger, and received letters from other writers in exchange. The project returns this spring with a new prompt: write about your fears.
Oregon Humanities is a statewide organization that brings people together to talk, listen, and learn from one another. “Dear Stranger asks us to intentionally reflect and share about our experiences,” says Lucy Solares-Steger, the program coordinator at Oregon Humanities who runs the Dear Stranger project. “While at first this can be daunting or challenging, many letter writers find that they’re able to work through these experiences by writing them out, and through this, make a really impactful connection with another person.”
The aim of Dear Stranger is to create shared understanding among Oregonians with different backgrounds, experiences, and beliefs. The premise is simple: Write a letter, get a letter, and make a new connection. Each round of the project asks writers to address a different question or theme. This spring’s prompt for writers is, “Write about fear. Share your worries, anxieties, and phobias. What are you afraid of? Are there things you used to fear that no longer scare you? Are there things that people commonly fear that they should not?”
Instructions for participation are available on the Oregon Humanities website at oregonhumanities.org. Letters are swapped anonymously, and each person receives a letter from the person who received the one they wrote. What happens next is up to the writers. If they’d like to write a reply, they can do so through Oregon Humanities.
Letters should be addressed to Oregon Humanities, Attn: Dear Stranger, 610 SW Alder St., Suite 1111, Portland, Oregon, 97205. For this round, Oregon Humanities will exchange letters mailed by October 31, 2023.
Questions about Dear Stranger should be directed to programs@oregonhumanities.org.
Oregon Humanities connects people and communities through conversation, storytelling, and participatory programs to inspire understanding and collaborative change. More information about our programs and publications — which include the Conversation Project, Consider This, Humanity in Perspective, Public Program Grants, So Much Together, The Detour podcast, and Oregon Humanities magazine — can be found at oregonhumanities.org. Oregon Humanities is an independent, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities and a partner of the Oregon Cultural Trust.