2008 Woodie Awards
Capturing life, one secret at a time
Megan McClure
Issue date: 10/9/07 Section: A&E
Two hand-drawn stick figures - one male, one female - stand on the yellow piece of paper, staring at the reader with large, scribbled eyes and toothy, forced smiles.
"I love him," the writer scrawled in red ink. "He loves her."
This admission of unrequited love is the first of nearly 400 anonymous secrets published in Frank Warren's "A Lifetime of Secrets." The book, intriguing in and of itself, is merely one piece in the ever-growing puzzle that is PostSecret.
The secrets go on. "I'm the product of adultery." "I never wash my glassware after organic chemistry lab." "Everyone thinks I drink coffee … it's really grape Kool-Aid. I. HATE. COFFEE."
PostSecret began as a project in November 2004, when Warren quietly distributed 3,000 blank postcards - in subway stations, libraries, anywhere. The instructions on the back of each postcard invited the recipient to join in what soon became a cultural phenomenon, spawning the largest advertisement-free blog on the Internet.
"You are invited to anonymously contribute to a group art project," the cards read. "Your secret can be a regret, fear, betrayal, desire, confession or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before. Be brief. Be legible. Be creative."
Soon, postcards began filling Warren's Germantown, Md., mailbox. Even after the original cards stopped coming, the flood of handmade confessions continued.
Today, Warren's Web site feeds devotees' cravings for secrets with weekly updates. Each Sunday, approximately 25 new submissions are posted, exposing submitters' deepest secrets to a worldwide audience through uniquely-decorated postcards.
"A Lifetime of Secrets" is the fourth book in the PostSecret line, bringing Warren's brainchild from the online realm and into readers' hands. While the previous three collections offered a seemingly random assortment of postcards, this book actually appears to follow a plot.
"I love him," the writer scrawled in red ink. "He loves her."
This admission of unrequited love is the first of nearly 400 anonymous secrets published in Frank Warren's "A Lifetime of Secrets." The book, intriguing in and of itself, is merely one piece in the ever-growing puzzle that is PostSecret.
The secrets go on. "I'm the product of adultery." "I never wash my glassware after organic chemistry lab." "Everyone thinks I drink coffee … it's really grape Kool-Aid. I. HATE. COFFEE."
PostSecret began as a project in November 2004, when Warren quietly distributed 3,000 blank postcards - in subway stations, libraries, anywhere. The instructions on the back of each postcard invited the recipient to join in what soon became a cultural phenomenon, spawning the largest advertisement-free blog on the Internet.
"You are invited to anonymously contribute to a group art project," the cards read. "Your secret can be a regret, fear, betrayal, desire, confession or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before. Be brief. Be legible. Be creative."
Soon, postcards began filling Warren's Germantown, Md., mailbox. Even after the original cards stopped coming, the flood of handmade confessions continued.
Today, Warren's Web site feeds devotees' cravings for secrets with weekly updates. Each Sunday, approximately 25 new submissions are posted, exposing submitters' deepest secrets to a worldwide audience through uniquely-decorated postcards.
"A Lifetime of Secrets" is the fourth book in the PostSecret line, bringing Warren's brainchild from the online realm and into readers' hands. While the previous three collections offered a seemingly random assortment of postcards, this book actually appears to follow a plot.
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