Holiday Gift Guide
gifts for writers and poets
Looking for the perfect gift for your favorite writer? Sure, we’re social distancing for the holidays, but the post office is still delivering. We put together some of our favorite gift ideas to share with you. Use the comment section to share links to your latest book, Etsy store or any other gift-able projects you’d like to share with our readers. Happy Holidays!
Pens
Our favorite pen around the office is the Parker Jotter. The stainless steel model has terrific weight and offers wonderful writing experience.
The Parker Jotter is not as expensive as it looks, and it comes with a gift box. Include a Quink Gel ink refill to really bring this pen to life.
Did you know that the Parker Jotter was John F. Kennedy’s favorite pen to use and to gift? Or that Lindon B. Johnson ordered 60,000 Parker Pens at the start of his presidency, because he would write each stroke of each letter of his name with a different pen, using up to 75 pens per document, so he could give away pens with little typed certificates? Weird choice, but we respect it.
pencils
Check out the Kaweco Sketch Up Pencil, Brass, 5.6 mm. Is it a $25 pencil? Yes. Does it look like a $40 pencil? Somehow, also yes. It’s brass, made in Germany, and comes with a nifty tin. Perfect for writing, sketching, and featuring in Instagram pictures. What else do you want?
The Brass edition will take on a natural patina over time and make your hands smell like coins. But hey, we’re in a pandemic and that just sounds like a great reason to wash your hands. These bad boys also come in aluminum, steel and plastic options.
Moleskine notebook
These are seriously nice notebooks with a tremendous range of paper options.
Lined, unlined, music notebooks, sketchbooks, watercolor books, address books, planners, even whatever an “Adobe Creative Cloud Connected Paper Tablet Smart Notebook” is.
Anything from the unemployed philosophers guild
Sound like an overstatement? It’s not. The Unemployed Philosophers Guild boasts “Thoughtful Gifts for Thinking People” and they’re not kidding. Disappearing Civil Liberties Mug? Check. Kurt Vonnegut prayer candle? Check. RGB magnetic finger puppet? Check.
Bottle opener
The Areaware Bent Nail Bottle Opener in Walnut is the kind of bottle opener that you’d find laying out on your rich friend’s coffee table, pick up thinking it’s some kind of vintage objet d’art, and then feel like a real dumb-dumb when you find out it’s just a bottle opener.
puzzles
The perfect way for the writer in your life to be productive while procrastinating on their upcoming project. Plus, they’re good for your brain…probably.
Bookmarks
Remember how exciting it was in elementary school to get a new bookmark from Scholastic? We found a cool stainless steel mirror bookmark that works great and will keep the spines and corners of your friends books looking great.
Wooden toys
The Manhattan Project Artful Skwish is a rattle, a teether, and was designed by a NASA engineer. A great gift for a baby, and it comes in a natural wood hue option for the pretentious parent. It’s good to chew on, throwable, fun to shake, collapse it and watch it pop back, plus it looks great on a coffee table.
Frida Kahlo face mask
We’ve got to wear them anyway, why not have fun? This one has Frida, a monkey, and a space for a replaceable filter. Awesome.
support the usps
Buy some stamps.
Get these cool 1969: First Moon Landing Stamps for your favorite fan of Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 of the U.S. Constitution. Or get them as a fun gift for the conspiracy theorist in your life. These bad boys even have a holographic background.
The USPS has a terrific collection of stamps that are pretty enough to frame and can always be used to mail stuff. No matter what your giftee is into, there is sure to be some kind of stamp that they’ll like.
support your favorite artists
There’s a viral post going around on social media that you can support businesses, artists, and creators by just “clicking Like” on their stuff. That’s bananas. If you like what someone is making and want them to make more of it, buy it.
Your friend wrote a book or was featured in a book? It’s free to ask your library to get a copy and borrow it. Send a selfie with the library copy to your friend. Ask your library to invite the author for a reading. You are literally the coolest. Have a couple bucks? Buy copies and ask if they’ll sign them, gift the signed copies to friends and family. Two different friends wrote books? Buy books from each friend, have them sign them with inscriptions and gift them to the other friend. Amazing. Jane Austen, Bukowski, Hemmingway? They don’t know or care if you bought their books, they’re all dead. Your friend on the other hand? They’ll know, they’ll remember, and with your encouragement they might just go on to write the next modern masterpiece.
