Crooked Nose Bones • Mahitha Kasireddi

Take The First Steps Into The Dark Dawn • Royster

BY ROYSTER

In 2009, I couldn't read my own longhand notes.  I read a bit about handwriting, then adopted an italic script from Write Now! by Getty & Dubay.  Much more legible, and if I put my mind and hand to it a little more than I do here, I get compliments!  Best of all, I got a letter from Mrs. Getty where she includes some calligraphic scribbles.  

“Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.” Alan Cohen

I Love You in Armenian • Seda Stepanyan

HANDWRITTEN BY SEDA STEPANYAN

Written in Armenian
Pronounce: Es (I) kez (you) sirum em (love) Alberto
Translation: I love you, Arberto

A Two-Liner in Telugu

HANDWRITTEN BY NIVI NIVEDITA

Solfeggio: The Language of Music • Sarah Thomas

Love is Not Affectionate Feeling but a Steady Wish • Bryan Gormley

Marana Mrudangam • Gireesh Raju

In Telugu (Dravidian language native to India)

We Are Going Fishing While They Build Their Empires on Scotch • Jim Landwehr

Huffy, by Jim Landwehr

Remnants, by Jim Landwehr

Alphabet in Kurrentschrift • Sarah Madges

Kurrentschrift: German in medieval style handwriting, this particular style circa 1865

Conquered by Sadness, Soon Was Filled with Gloom • Satya Vadlamani

BY SATYA VADLAMANI

Expectations are more
But hope is less
Conquered by sadness
Soon was filled with gloom
Becos,
The intention was to write
But the refill in my pen exhausted

*the last word in my original script reflected the writing when the refill exhausted*

The Power and Weight of the Mind Which is Not Enough • LB Thompson

The paper is from Chinatown, and the quote is from poet George Oppen

Man—Kind(ness) Conquers • Amy Henn Mizell

A 22-Month Project Using the American Sign Lanuage Alphabet as a Platform for Inner Reflection • Sarah Haskell

Each square is 9" by 9". Embroidered on antique linens. 2014 - 2015

BY SARAH HASKELL

Now: Letters by Hand, An illustrated Inner Life

A 22 month project using the American Sign Language alphabet as a platform for inner reflection.

 26 letters stitched on antique linens over 22 months

Project initiated in Tamil Nadu, India (January 2014)

Completed in Rabun Gap, GA, USA (November 2015)

Follow Sarah on Facebook

If I Have Prophetic Powers • Dr. Williams Madges

And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 

- New Testament, First letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 13, Verse Two. Written in Greek.

The Stone Rejected by the Builders • Dr. Nancy Fox

Rozanne Gold Joins Handwritten as Curator of Handwritten Recipes

Handwritten is full of happiness to announce its newest curator, world-renowned chef and food-writer Rozanne Gold, to the team. She will be dishing up a new column, Handwritten Recipes. 

The column comes from a lifetime of experience: from the age of five, Rozanne was rarely without a cookbook in hand. Fast forwarding to now, she has written thirteen of her own, earning her international recognition, a collection of awards, and thousands of original recipes.

Rozanne Gold with Mayor Ed Koch, 1980

She's worked in some of the most legendary kitchens in New York City, such as Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center and Windows of the World, and just so happened to be the first executive chef for New York Mayor Ed Koch when she was only twenty-four years of age.

She's done just about everything, from creating her own catering business (Catering Artistique) to cooking up trend-setting concepts: as Chef-Director of Baum + Whiteman worldwide, she created the three-star Hudson River Club, New York's first pan-Mediterranean restaurant Cafe Greco, the highly-sought after "Cocktails and Little Meals" at the Rainbow Room, and her book Recipes 1-2-3, which gave rise to "The Minimalist Column" in The New York Times, turned into the internationally acclaimed series of 1-2-3 cookbooks. Her writing and recipes have surfaced in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Gourmet, Oprah, Bon Appetit, FoodArts and More), and she doesn't seem to be letting up: she's currently a guest columnist for Cooking Light and blogger for Huffington Post. It isn't surprising then to know Rozanne has been described as "New York's first lady of food" and "the food expert's expert."

Rozanne's Recipes, stacked together.

On top of all this, Rozanne is an end-of-life doula, philanthropist, trustee of The New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, and a poet. She is currently finishing up an MFA at The New School Creative Writing Program. Where she finds the time to make so many meals, we wish to know: a frequent guest on National Public Radio (earning Leonard Lopate a James Beard Award), Rozanne is a sought-after moderator – most recently of the New School’s 2015 program “Gotham on a Plate,” and “The Next Big Bite,” created by Les Dames d’Escoffier, a professional organization of women in food and wine, where Rozanne is a past President.

She's also a philanthropist: she saved Gourmet magazine's library by purchasing it and donating it to NYU, and after Hurricane Sandy, she established up a pop-up kitchen in Brooklyn to prepare and deliver 185,000 meals to those in need. Believing in the power of food to create community, she was one of Israel’s first “Women Chefs for Peace” and the recipient of the Jewish National Fund’s “Olive Tree Award” for her efforts in promoting Israel’s food and wine industry. 

As creator and curator of this column, Handwritten Recipes, Rozanne hopes to re-ignite the connection between generations through the exploration of food, cooking, and memory — most profoundly and poignantly though the power of the pen. The first recipe will launch February 1st. What will it be? A caramel custard, which she wrote in 1980 for her mother.  

To sign up for Rozanne's column, enter your email address below, and prepare your inbox for delicious, handwritten treats. Or, to submit your own recipe to Handwritten Recipes, email Rozanne at rozannegold@mindspring.com.

Seventy Years Ago Today

By Carly Butler

It was while moving my grandfather into a retirement home that we stumbled upon 110 love letters written from my grandmother to my grandfather just after WWII. They were dated January to July of 1946, and they were tucked away in the back of a cupboard next to a slew of VHS tapes of recorded British sitcoms. My Grama had been gone for over 10 years at this point. She died when I was 13.

When we first found the letters, they were simply a precious family memento — an heirloom that we’d keep in a drawer the few years that followed their discovery. It wasn’t until 2012 that I found myself in front of the RMS Queen Mary docked in Long Beach, California, the ship that my Grama sailed on in 1946 towards her new life, that an idea started to form. I would move to England from January to July of 2013 to retrace my Grama's steps.  I would knock on the door of the house she wrote the letters from, I would visit the places she visited and I would write home to my love, just as she did.

The journey of retracing my Grama’s letters 67 years later changed my life. It has led me to this exact moment, drafting up my first entry for this column on Handwritten. If someone were to have told me that a bundle of love letters would change the course of my life, bring incredible people into my path, be the foundation of a love that I have with the perfect man for me, and create a connection to my Grama, someone who left this world almost 20 years ago, I’m not sure I would have believed it.  

What I've come to realize is that my gratitude for having these letters is far beyond the grand gesture or epic journey. The most meaningful part of having found my Grama’s letters is that they give me a window into a life-story of an incredible woman who walked before me. Her handwritten words allow me to get to know her as a 26 year-old women embarking on a major life decision, leaving behind everything she knew, putting her faith in love and living life the way it’s meant to be lived. Her words bring me strength when I feel weak, courage when I feel scared, belief when I am in doubt, and chutzpah to live the life of my dream, seventy years later. 

Her first letter, shared below for the first time, is dated January 17, 1946, just over seventy years ago today.

TRANSCRIPTION:

January 17, 1946

My Darling, 

I haven't written before because I knew it wouldn't be any use as the letter would get there before you. Darling, I miss you terribly, much more than I ever did before, now I am only living for the day when I get my papers to sail. Right until I got your telegram Tuesday morning, I thought and lived in the hope that you would walk in once more for a few stolen hours, but after I got the telegram I knew you had gone. Thanks for sending it, darling, it was sweet of you, if I hadn't of got it I might still be thinking you would come.

I hope you had a good sailing darling and it wasn't too rough (or does that make you laugh) anyway the main important thing is that you got there safely. P.G. Everything back here is very much the same, I started work back again today at Samuel’s, I couldn't stay at home doing nothing any longer the time just seem to drag. 

I wrote and asked for the address of the Canadian wives club and I've got it now, they meet every first Monday in the month and the next meeting is on Feb 4th so I'm going to go and learn some more about Canada and Canadian cooking (Ha! Ha! That's not funny). 

It's a funny thing darling but you know all the time you were here we never heard our song once, well both last night and the night before I heard someone singing it on the AFN, they must know just how I feel. Every time I go in our room, I nearly start crying and it's worse when I go to bed, the moon is still shining on our bed just like it was that last night you were here. 

On Tuesday night I went to the Odeon and saw "Love Letters" it was a lovely film and reminded me so much of how letters brought us together. I'm going to Oxford on Saturday for the weekend to take Vera back her things, anyway it will make a change for me, I'm going to take my camera and take some snaps to send to you. That reminds me I bought a smashing photo album the other day and I've put in all my snaps but there is still a lot of room, so I'm ready for all the snaps you are going to send me. Now all I want is a scrapbook. 

One of the women in the shop today asked me what I would like for a wedding present so I guess we are still collecting 'em. While I am writing this Dixie is walking all over the room, so you can just imagine. mmmm. I have an answer Danny's letter yet but I will soon, I have written to everybody else. Well darling I guess that's about all for now except that I love you and I won't feel like a whole person again until we are together for good. P.G. 

Half of me is with you, well cheerio darling, God Bless You and All the Luck in the world to you, Au revoir. All my love forever your ever loving wife, 

Rene

I love you – in x’s
P.S. Give my love to the family. Love Rene. 

Resolution #O: Use That New Health Insurance and Finally Go to the Doctor • Chelsea Florio