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Young writers of Bahrain are bringing the dreams of fantasy fans to life with fictional letters written by their favourite characters.
The ForYou Letters initiative was created by poet and published author Fatima Saleem.
It is a collective of writers that create letters, free of charge, taking on the role of characters within fictional universes, like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.
“Starting this initiative was a very spontaneous ... a 1am decision!” the 16-year-old student told GulfWeekly.
“I immediately contacted my friends, Teesha Suvarna and Misbah Shaik who became moderators.
“Reading and writing is ingrained in my soul and I want to take it to the next level and use it to make a difference in someone’s day.
“I believe letters are superior to today’s text messages. There is something about crafting a letter that a measly text message could never replace.”
The collective, comprised of 15 literary enthusiasts so far, has received more than 150 requests for letters in the last month since its start.
From Indian cartoon characters like Chota Bheem to iconic ones like Mickey Mouse and Harry Potter, pop culture fans have been clamouring for a word or two from their favourite fictional beings.
So far, the team has been creating their letters in digital form, but Fatima has plans to venture into handwritten letters as well.
“We have a spreadsheet with the letter requests updated as they come in,” Fatima explained.
“From there, a writer usually picks up a request they’d be interested in writing and claims it. It is an individual process, once the writer has written it, they email it to us.
“It goes through a quality check, and if needed, edits, without disrupting the original format. After that, I format an email to the recipient with fan art and character signatures, and send it off.
“We plan to expand to hand-written letters sometime in the future. It is only because of the capacity of our team and the current Covid-19 situation that we haven’t, yet.”
Each writer who joins the collective has their own unique writing goals, in addition to the collective’s shared love for the written word.
“Letters have a very special place in my heart and I have been giving hand-written ones to my friends as souvenirs for years,” 20-year-old Bahrain University student Aisha Imam said.
For Nanditha Dileep, 15, creating these letters builds on her previous writing and reading experience.
She explained: “I’ve been a regular part of the school magazine team in the past and won numerous literary awards, including essay writing, short story writing, poem writing and book review contests.
“While quarantine seemed to amplify everyone’s creative process, it only slowed mine down to the extent where I didn’t feel like writing for a long time. But when Fatima told me about ForYou Letters, it made me want to start writing again.
“Each letter is written after thoroughly analysing the criteria for the request, the fictional world they come from, and the storyline they belong to.
“Seeing the world from multiple perspectives for multiple letters has helped me rediscover my love for writing.”
Hani Abdulhadi and Faisal Ibrahim have also been writing for the team, hoping to inspire and entertain fellow literary lovers with their words.
Misbah, who is currently working on his debut poetry book, Fingers on Thorns, was ecsatic when contacted by the organisation to handle their social media and write letters.
For 15-year-old Emma Rose, who studies at The Indian School, the initiative offered a fresh start and a way to further enhance her writing skills.
The GulfWeekly team decided to test drive the initiative. To create something uniquely Bahraini, we put in a request for a letter from Um Homar, the kingdom’s infamous fictional lady with a donkey hoof.
Bahraini parents, typically mothers, used the tale to warn children against venturing outside the house in the afternoon – the creature’s time to lurk in neighbourhoods.
Bahraini film maker Mohamed Fakhro created Cloven – a short film capturing the essence of the scary fictional character, which is available online.
However, we wanted to catch up with Um Homar and see what she has been up to in Covid times since most people are scared indoors by a different threat. Within a couple of days, the team had sent us a wonderful letter written purportedly by the cloven one herself.
Scan the QR code besides the excerpt of the letter to check out the full letter!
The organisation is also currently looking for writers and letter-trackers and is eager to receive more letter requests.
To learn more, follow @foryouletters on Instagram.
