Bessie

Dear Valeria,

Before the white man became universally disliked for his mental outlook it was there. (Maru 1971, p. 5.)

Love and peace,

Bessie Head

Marjory

 Dear Valeria,

By shedding tears of blood we praise King T'hamara,
Whose praises I, not ill-chosen, have told forth.
For ink I have used a lake of jet, and for pen a pliant crystal.
Whoever hears, a jagged spear will pierce his heart!

The Knight in the Panther’s Skin: Stanza 4
Translated by Marjory Scott Wardrop

Love,

Marjory Scott Wardrop

Rabbie

Dear Valeria,

Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a pannic’s in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi’ bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,
Wi’ murd'ring pattle!

Yours,

Robert Burns

Narihira

Dear Valeria,

Even the almighty
gods of old
never knew
such beauty:
on the river Tatsuta
in autumn sunlight
a brocade—
reds flowing above
blue water below.

Go in peace,

Ariwara no Narihira

Marie

Dear Valeria,

Sit down…



Let me tell you a story.

Marie Hassenpflug

Chadwick

Dear Valeria,

“Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe.”

Chadwick Boseman

Vonda

Dear Valeria,

“It won't be any of those things,” J.D. said. “I don't know what it will be, but it will be something different.”

With love,

Vonda N. McIntyre

Kurt

Dear Valeria,

I gather from what I read in the papers and hear on television that you imagine me, and some other writers, too, as being sort of ratlike people who enjoy making money from poisoning the minds of young people. I am in fact a large, strong person, fifty-one years old, who did a lot of farm work as a boy, who is good with tools. I have raised six children, three my own and three adopted. They have all turned out well. Two of them are farmers. I am a combat infantry veteran from World War II, and hold a Purple Heart. I have earned whatever I own by hard work. I have never been arrested or sued for anything. I am so much trusted with young people and by young people that I have served on the faculties of the University of Iowa, Harvard, and the City College of New York. Every year I receive at least a dozen invitations to be commencement speaker at colleges and high schools. My books are probably more widely used in schools than those of any other living American fiction writer.

I am very real,

Kurt Vonnegut

Ursula

Dear Valeria,

What good is a literature of dissent?

This: if you don't preach to the choir, the choir won’t keep singing. We need to hear each other’s voices. A constant, urgent need. Dissent is nothing if it doesn’t speak, and speak again.

Yours truly,

Ursula K. Le Guin

Carrie

Dear Valeria,

That’s the way it works in movies. Something happens that has an impact on someone’s life, and based on that impact, his life shifts course. Well, that’s not how it happens in life. Something has an impact on you, and then your life stays the same, and you think, “Well, what about the impact?” You have epiphanies all the time. They just don't have any effect.

Love,

Carrie Fisher

Wilfred

Dear friends,

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
      —Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
      Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
      Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
   Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
      The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
   Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
   And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Yours,

Wilfred Owen

Pablo

Querida Valeria,

Y fue a esa edad... Llegó la poesía
a buscarme. No sé, no sé de dónde
salió, de invierno o río.
No sé cómo ni cuándo,
no, no eran voces, no eran
palabras, ni silencio,
pero desde una calle me llamaba,
desde las ramas de la noche,
de pronto entre los otros,
entre fuegos violentos
o regresando solo,
allí estaba sin rostro
y me tocaba.

Siempre,

Pablo Neruda

Dick

Dear Valeria,

I am really enjoying the new MLK Jr stamp - just think about all those white bigots, licking the backside of a black man.

Peace and freedom,

Dick Gregory

Janet

Dear Valeria,

So who's more adult - somebody who works like mad to avoid a problem or somebody who works like mad to solve it?

Best regards,

Janet Kagan

Lucille

Dear Valeria,

won’t you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.

the warmest hug,
Lucille Clifton

Doris

Dear Valeria,

I was filled with such a dangerous delicious intoxication that I could have walked straight off the steps into the air, climbing on the strength of my own drunkenness into the stars. And the intoxication, as I knew even then, was the recklessness of infinite possibility.

All the best,

Doris Lessing

Djuna

Dear Valeria,

I was doing well enough until you came along and kicked my stone over, and out I came, all moss and eyes.

Yours,

Djuna Barnes

Tanith

Dear Valeria,

The entire hotel, which called itself The Queen, had a forlorn, winter appearance, and few guests. Madame Ghoule, for it had been she who interviewed me, was a formidable barrel of a woman. The interview had consisted of her terse remarks on my proposed duties, and the evidence that I looked too skinny to be able to do any of it; was I therefore strong enough? I lied that I was, which she at once accepted.

Yours,

Tanith Lee

Amelia

Dear Valeria,

"Come what may," said I aloud, "I will see what lies beyond this door!"
And with this I opened it.” 

my best to you and your little friend from the Nile,

Amelia Edwards

Sarah

My dear Valeria,

There lived in the northern parts of England, a gentlewoman who undertook the education of young ladies; and this trust she endeavoured faithfully to discharge, by instructing those committed to her care in reading, writing, working, and in all proper forms of behaviour. And though her principal aim was to improve their minds in all useful knowledge; to render them obedient to their superiors, and gentle, kind, and affectionate to each other; yet did she not omit teaching them an exact neatness in their persons and dress, and a perfect gentility in their whole carriage.

With affection and regard, I remain,

Sarah Fielding