Bradley Johnson Productions Posts

The challenge of an absurd reality is producing art that is reflective of that absurdity without giving in to its logics. What I mean is, it’s difficult to make art that captures the heightened sense of precarity and peril we face while maintaining the perspective needed to undermine the forces that have produced such a situation. For author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, recently named to the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35, one answer to this predicament is to dial into the absurdity, turn the volume way up, and allow the harshness to wash over us until it hurts too much not to move. Full immersion.

His debut story collection, Friday Black, is darkly humorous satire of the dystopic results of an American culture conditioned to accept the excesses of capitalism, racism, and structural violence as the norm. The extraordinary becomes quotidian. And somehow Adjei-Brenyah retains a semblance of hope. We aren’t necessarily doomed, but we will be, he warns, if we can’t see how we’ve allowed the absurd to flourish in ways both macro and micro.

I spoke with Adjei-Brenyah over the phone about the big things — violence, racism, capitalism, human nature. But these are only points of entry. He wants, perhaps even more than the end of these forms of oppression, to remind us of our human connection — and responsibility to one another.

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Mychal Denzel Smith: These stories are incredible. You’re diving into this satirical dystopian blurring of American life, particularly from a black perspective, with all of the different violences and systems at play that prey on emotions and alter the way in which we interact with one another. I’m curious, as far as your writing process, are there triggers in your everyday life that turn your imagination towards the surreal?

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah: I remember a while back I made a video about wearing a hood. I remember Geraldo Rivera said if black kids wore their hoodies — didn’t wear hoodies as much — maybe they’d be safer. To me it’s already so ridiculous and so crazy but he said that in this way that presents it as normal or whatever, and so I try to say what is the real implication of him saying something like that? It’s that if you wear this kind of thing, that is if you present in this sort of way that is associated with black people, then maybe you’re going to get killed. Then maybe it’s okay for you to die, or maybe it’s acceptable. Almost literally even by his own logic that’s sort of what he’s saying. And that was several years before I wrote that book so for me, the surreal is the way of getting to the heart of the ways people try to use language to hide a sinister reality. The racism, or general evil that they’re willing to accept.

The surreal is the way I get to the heart of how people try to use language to hide a sinister reality of the racism, or general evil that they’re willing to accept.

MDS: From the very beginning of the collection, the violence you imagine feels extraordinary. But there’s a coolness to the way that you describe it in which it feels sort of regular or mundane in a way. Is that a deliberate approach to it? Do you find the violence extraordinary, or what is the tension there for you?

NKA: Yeah, I do think there is an extraordinary amount of violence. Part of the reason why the book is playing with that is because we accept a lot of violence in our personal lives and also on a larger more macro scale. I remember the first time, the news was like 47 people were killed today on Black Friday. And it was just like, “yeah”and then “The Ravens Won.” Because of the overwhelming nature of the violence in our society we kind of almost allow a lot of violence. So when I put it in text, you’re kind of forced to pause and think “wait a second.” Because there is a part of us that does resist, but we’ve gotten so used to packaging our violence in these particular ways. “Oh a bomb was dropped in x country that we are trained not to care about. It hit a hospital. 68 people we think were killed.” And that’s — 68 human beings were killed by an accidental whatever, civilians whatever you want to say. And it’s just there in front of you.

I worked in a mall for a time. I was there when someone jumped off the fourth floor of Palisades mall. And I remember they put a yellow tarp on her. They kind of put like an emergency siren or something and the mall just continued. And I guess —

MDS: So that story is real.

NKA: Um, that story — it’s more real than I wish it were. Yeah I definitely worked in a mall for sure. I worked in a mall for too long. And besides actually teaching at school, the only real jobs I’ve had have been in retail. Everywhere I look there is some incredible violence happening and we’re sort of just walking by it. Sometimes in my stories I turned up the volume on that violence a little bit more, or I make it seem like I’ve turned it up a little bit more. Sometimes — now, often I don’t even think I am. But I turn up the volume a little bit more, and I still walk by it. I think that also causes the reader to be like “hey, wait a second,” and I guess what I hope is that we had that “wait a second” a little bit more in our actual lives.

MDS: Yeah, because to me this is like a comment on the ways in which violence, or even the potential for violence, informs our interactions even when the violence or that potential is left unsaid.

NKA: Yep! Yeah it’s kind of like known — and there’s violence like “I’m gonna kill you” and there’s violence like erasure. There’s violence like silencing. And it’s just built into society that you pay.

It feels like if you don’t wear a tie, you’re not acceptable. A tie has nothing to do with your person, it has nothing to do with your ability to handle problems. It’s about your ability to conform to this arbitrary system. I mean not even arbitrary system, it’s often very much explicitly and implicitly right in front of us. It’s kind of just the thing we do. And there’s violence in that, too. There’s all types of violence that we sort of just learn to deal with. And sometimes I try to maybe present them in hyperbole so we could say maybe we shouldn’t just accept these things.

There’s all types of violence that we sort of just learn to deal with. There’s violence like “I’m gonna kill you” and there’s violence like erasure. There’s violence like silencing. Maybe we shouldn’t just accept these things.

MDS: In the story “Zimmerland” there are a few sentences that felt like they encapsulated the themes that you were trying to address throughout the book. You write: “People say sell your soul like it’s easy, but your soul is yours and it’s not for sale. Even if you try, it’ll still be there, waiting for you to remember it.”

In the context of the story this man is playing out this role at this symbolic theme park and he’s attempting to make a difference here, or believes that he’s doing something more than he’s actually doing, only to see that he’s playing into the racist fantasies of people who come into the park and pay to kill him over and over again. But he thinks that there’s the potential for him to do good. It plays out over and over again — from the first story when these folks are getting retribution for the deaths of these children, the last story with this dystopian future. People’s souls are still intact, no matter what the systems they are subjected to, but feeling like they have little control over them. But it remains with you and eats away at you.

NKA: That’s one of the places in the book where I almost to the point of stepping out of the story — tried to say it a little bit overtly — what my hope is. Sometimes when I’m a little more cynical I don’t know how true that is. But when I’m at the highest up and doing revision, looking at your work hard you kind of get this story to reflect a self higher than your person.

Whenever we allow ourselves to believe in these dehumanizing practices, we try and try and try but it’s an empty promise that will never return what you think it will. The protagonist in that story has realized that — and he’s realized it in a way that maybe makes him do what is wrong for the time being, but he has arrived at something that I think is true, and I think the idea of selling is really important to the book as a whole.

The idea of purchasing, consumerism, this transactional life that we subscribe to or are forced into in capitalism is kind of an illusion. The realest thing is there when you can’t sell anything, and you can try and try and try I think, or hope. But I think there is sort of an innate call to good or at least without any help you know that it’s wrong to hurt somebody else.

MDS: Yeah —

NKA: It’s also sad, you know. It’s kind of like really depressing.

MDS: Well, yes. You do — what’s interesting in the way that you present these stories is that there is the sadness of the violence here but sometimes it’s comical in a way. In that very dark, humorous way. And it hits you in a way that you’re caught off guard by your own laughter. The idea, the absurdity of the level of violence or the way that you’ve described the violence, does hit you. But then you’re remembering that what you’re describing is the destruction of the human being.

NKA: Humor works in several registers for me. I think that’s how I navigate the world, it’s how I cope. But also, one of my favorite types of humor is when the punchline is actually the truth in the joke. It’s ridiculous and it’s terrible, and there is something that makes us laugh about absurdity. There’s absurdity and I actively try, to make things “haha stupid” funny to kind of leaven the intensity, but there are also times when it’s like “Hah — Ohhhh.” And I like that cut “Oooooh” moment, where we’re getting ready to laugh but then you realize no, you said — whatever you’re describing — these are real people’s views, these are real people’s bodies. There’s a real profit in this. And they’re ridiculous.

My favorite types of humor is when the punchline is actually the truth in the joke. It’s ridiculous and it’s terrible, and there is something that makes us laugh about absurdity.

MDS: I’m probably not going to be the last person to bring this up to you, but your stories put me in the frame of mind of when I was watching Sorry to Bother You. The idea of — there’s an absurd level to this, that I’m presenting to you but actually this is not far off from the reality that we’re living through. And similar to Sorry to Bother You I feel like there’s a way in particular your stories about the mall and retail and Black Friday, that you’re presenting the very real evils of capitalism to us, and the consumerist impulse that this breeds within people and the way that can turn violent, but also from the perspective of the narrator of the story, finds a pride in his ability to sell. And there’s a way in which you can recognize the evils of this system and have that still juxtaposed with the fact that someone who’s also victim to the system finds self-worth and purpose within that.

NKA: For me it’s important to recognize that I’m not on some hill talking about these problems. I’ve gone to the store and felt good about myself because I was able to buy this or that. Make art out of pain and I think that’s important and I recognize that I am not outside of that.

So that’s another thing I think for the narrators of my stories. The narrator is not innocent — they’re part of the system, too, and that’s sort of the insidiousness of it for me. Because, even when you think you’re outside of it, even if you’re critical — I know I still, at some level, judge my work by these things I have. And sometimes I have to to survive because the system is set up that you have to participate to an extent, but even outside of that, I want these shoes, I want that thing, and I’ve gotten away from it quite recently, but I think it’s really hard to separate yourself from the system entirely.

MDS: Yeah, I mean I have 100s of pairs of Jordans, so —

NKA: I used to kill myself for Jordans. I remember when I used to follow it, and when the 8s came back out the first time, it was such a huge thing. I mean, I’m not anti-them, I think they’re cool, I just know how I’ve attached my self-worth to them.

MDS: Right, exactly. Is retail a special villain to you within the capitalist economy or is it just because you worked retail?

NKA: Retail is special to me because I know it. And I know it because it’s funny because it’s so — I imagine those old wars, those guys that get shot right in the beginning you know? They shoot them, they shoot them, we’re like one of those people. One of those — brief, inconsequential, foot soldier, pawn, for some guy you’ll never meet. Or when you do meet them it’s such a big deal — they come to the store and you have to bow down at their feet.

For me retail is what I know but also it’s funny because in retail you also connect with the people not in retail. In the same way that corporate suits do not. And in some way that’s a grey area in that story “In Retail.” You get to speak to people. And there is something nice about having an opportunity to help someone. I remember working in a store — I still remember this was several years ago and I was trying to help them. I realized that they were deaf — all three of them were deaf and I remember this moment of — they were trying to get a Northface jacket — and I sold a lot of Northface jackets. They were trying to get the fleece that everybody used to wear. And whatever, I’d sell a bunch of those, and they don’t see the one they need, and they’re trying to talk to me and I remember this moment of one of them takes my hand and they draw it into my hand, I understood them. And I went to the back and got a medium. And they were happy. It was like someone helped them and they were happy.

There were times when people would come to the store looking distraught — back to school, I remember how stressful that was for me and my parents. And I know that this is cheap and I was young enough, I’m young enough to know they’re not going to get clowned at school for it. So let me help them. Several people came in — but usually a woman would come in for a very specific request because in prison you can’t wear a lot of stuff. You can’t wear any of these colors, you can’t wear any insignias, you can’t wear these and that. It’s almost like a section of grey on grey stuff. And it’s a big relief to them to be a small help, so for me the blessing or salvation of retail is that you do get to interact with people on a human level that is sometimes really nice. Often it’s really not nice because customers suck and people are the worst. But — also people are cool. It’s always both. Are people the worst, are people the best? Yes. It’s both.

Retail is a good subject for me because I do like working in that space of intense — terrible, also wow wasn’t that a beautiful thing. And if you ask somebody in retail they have a bunch of horror stories, but also if you push them, they have moments of “actually that was pretty dope when I got to do that for that person.”

Originally published October 25, 2018

The post ‘Friday Black’ Is a Brutal, Brilliant Satire of American Racism and Capitalism appeared first on Electric Literature.

Islands loom large in British poetry, thanks to the country’s island status: Scottish poets have written paeans to the islands of Scotland, and English poets have discussed their country’s insular nature, while other islands in other parts of the world have also been described and eulogised down the ages. Below, […]

The post The Best Poems about Islands appeared first on Interesting Literature.

In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle enjoys Vincent Franklin and Alex Johnson’s delightful history of notable menus When did Britain’s first Indian restaurant open? What could the first diners on the Orient Express in 1884 enjoy for dinner? What food was on offer on board […]

The post Food for Thought: Menus That Made History appeared first on Interesting Literature.

George Orwell (1903-50) is known around the world for his satirical novella Animal Farm and his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, but he was arguably at his best in the essay form. Below, we’ve selected and introduced ten of Orwell’s best essays for the interested newcomer to his non-fiction, but there […]

The post The Best George Orwell Essays Everyone Should Read appeared first on Interesting Literature.

To think about Europe is to think about the thorny old issue of longing and belonging; nostalgia, homesickness, exile, migration and community. To think about Europe is to make sweeping statements, often about history and philosophy. ‘No other continent’, we may begin, or ‘The European Enlightenment tradition’, or ‘Our values’. But if history and anthropology teach us anything, it is that few cultural traditions properly belong to one place – people have traded stories since time immemorial, and still do; good stories and bad, merging and re-emerging. And yet places have themes, particular melodies and phrases and rhythms that are curiously durable.

We asked a number of European writers to select, and (briefly) reflect on, a quote about Europe. We were curious about what writers like Orhan Pamuk or Ludmila Ulitskaya might choose – who would our contributors turn to when asked to think about ‘Europe’, and what do they make of our continent, now? Tellingly, with one exception – Marie Darrieussecq, who quoted National Geographic – the quotes are steeped in history. Our authors evoked the great (male) canon: Fyodor Dostoevsky, William Blake, Bertolt Brecht, Joseph Conrad, Albert Camus. The quotes speak broadly to the darkness of Europe’s history, not its freedoms and affluence: ‘What times are these, in which / A conversation about trees is almost a crime’ (Brecht, 1939). Some are defiant – ‘Our Europe is a shared adventure which we will continue to pursue, despite you, in the wind of intelligence’ (Camus, Letters to a German Friend, 1944) – others caustic: ‘Well then, eliminate the people, curtail them, force them to be silent. Because the European Enlightenment is more important than people’ (Dostoevsky).

Europe’s song, it seemed to me reading these pieces, is set to music of grandiosity and lament, hubris and guilt. The weight of history binds us. Even Marie Darrieussecq turns mournful in her piece. There is a Europe of death and a Europe of life, she writes. Mass graves, bloodstained snow, sublime forests, there you have it. History divides ‘Europe’ from ‘Britain’, these symbolic entities of shifting borders.

That atmosphere remains in the longer texts, too. Thus William Atkins follows in Chekhov’s footsteps to the Russian island Sakhalin north of Japan, a penal colony of Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union. What is that neglected land like now? This is beyond the edge of Europe, a place whose Indigenous people, the Nivkh, have been marginalised for so long that they are nearly forgotten.

Katherine Angel writes about the attempt to decolonise a Belgian museum – the Musée royal de l’Afrique centrale. The most racist objects in the museum, including the Leopard Man (see illustration in the text), are now regarded as hors-jeu – out of play – and gathered in a special room. But Angel’s essay is also about her ambiguous relationship with London, where she lives and works. She ends with a quote from Günther Anders, the German-Jewish philosopher. He was born Stern, but published under the name Anders, a Nordic-sounding name and also the word for ‘other’, or ‘different’, in German. Günther Stern was Walter Benjamin’s cousin, and at one time Hannah Arendt’s husband. He fled to France, and then the US, returning to Europe (Vienna) in 1950. ‘Each of us knows that our mother is mortal, none of us knows that our home is mortal’, he wrote.

The Holocaust haunts us. British cultural historian Lara Feigel describes a long-ago visit to her Belgian grandmother, a survivor of Birkenau, who had cut herself off from the family of her eldest son, Feigel’s father, after he married out. Feigel reflects on an old diary entry describing the visit and the (almost) lost Jewish heritage of her family.

Joseph Leo Koerner, an eminent American art historian, travels with his children to the Nazi site of mass murder on the outskirts of Minsk in Belarus. His Viennese paternal grandparents were killed there, buried in a mass grave. Koerner explores a complex familial resistance to the painful question of what, exactly, happened to them. They were gone, deported and killed, no one knew where. He recalls childhood summers in Vienna, where his artist father compulsively painted street and landscape scenes; prolonged and unarticulated rituals of grief. The text is illustrated with one of Henry Koerner’s paintings; an interior of his childhood home. A thread, a surreal element, unwinds like a spider’s web from the ball of yarn on the table to the lamp above his mother’s hands. The stillness of the scene, the association to cobwebs, speaks of death and loss. There is another image in the piece: a poster, dating from 1941, showing the deportation (‘emigration’) of Austria’s Jews – other threads winding their way from Vienna to the complex of Nazi camps and killing fields.

The story of the Holocaust is also the story of failed asylum systems. We live with that legacy still. Ulf Karl Olov Nilsson, a Swedish psychoanalyst and poet, writes about his work on a psychiatric ward. A young woman from an unnamed African country has been denied asylum after a linguistic assessment cast doubt on her national origin. She is now almost catatonic. Nilsson eventually got her to speak: she revealed that she had witnessed several members of her family being killed, after which she was imprisoned in a cellar, where she was repeatedly raped. This essay, a chapter from his book Glömskans bibliotek ( The Library of Oblivion), is concerned with the paralysed silence at the heart of trauma and the obscenity, in that context, of interrogating asylum claims on behalf of the state.

And yet of course the work of assessing, recording and interrogating acts of violence has to be done. We can’t approve legal claims without due process; there is no restorative justice without investigations. Without that, we have no history and no analysis, only laments: eulogies for the dead and wounded. But interrogating trauma has to be done with compassion and respect, a delicate balancing act between emotions and facts and context. Somewhere in-between is the truth. Somewhere in-between is the story, or at least the European story.

Brexit note: I apologise in advance if this issue reaches you later than normal. We have printed Granta in Italy for many years now, transporting it across open borders – good luck with that, someone said. Good luck indeed.

We all know that our mother is mortal, none of us knows that our home is mortal.

The post Introduction appeared first on Granta Magazine.

It’s time to find the perfect gift for the writer in your life…but the only idea you can come up with is a pretty notebook.

As writers who have spent our whole lives getting notebooks under the tree, we’re here to tell you: you can do better!

The gift ideas for writers below range from the ridiculously silly (“Poe-pourri”, anyone?) to the wonderfully useful (fingerless writing gloves). Use one of these clever gifts to make your favorite writer laugh, or simply to show you understand just how much writing means to them.

Gift ideas for the writer in your life

We created this gift guide with holidays, birthdays and anniversaries in mind. Choose one of the thoughtful gifts below, and that special writer will know just how much you care.

Here are some of the best gifts for writers:

1. Fingerless writing gloves

Know a writer who’s always cold in their home office?

Fingerless gloves could help them stay warm, while still allowing them to keep typing away.

Even better, we found pairs that are covered in text from classic novels. Storiarts fingerless gloves come in lots of colors and themes, including Les Miserables, Hamlet, Pride and Prejudice, and the Declaration of Independence.

Fashionable and practical, this is one of the best gifts for writers out there.

2. Adult coloring book for writers

Yup, adult coloring is totally a trend.

Studies have shown that coloring reduces anxiety, creates focus and helps people become more mindful. No wonder there’s an adult coloring book specifically for writers!

3. Domain name

Does your writer have their own website? If not, they probably have it on their list to start a blog this year.

Gift your writer with their very own domain name, giving them the boost they need to make their writing public or start blogging.

Bluehost makes it easy to grab the domain name of your choice, and most domains cost around $12/year. If you’re not sure which domain to buy, your writer’s first and last name is a good bet, like this: SusanSmith.com. If that’s not available, try SusanSmithWrites.com.

You can test out a few domain names here to see what’s available:

4. Books about writing

You can never go wrong with giving a writer a book, especially when the book is about writing. After all, most of us are self-proclaimed bookworms, and we’re eager to improve our craft.

Here are four books every writer should read more than once:

• Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
• On Writing by Stephen King
• The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
• You Are a Writer by Jeff Goins

Want more to choose from? Here are 26 of the best books on writing.

5. Aqua Notes, the waterproof notepad

Know how you often get your best ideas in the shower?

Aqua Notes helps you capture them. This waterproof notepad, which mounts to the shower wall, allows you to document the greatest of ideas and grocery lists…or leave notes for whoever showers after you.

6. Literary socks

Gone are the days when socks were a lame gift your ancient aunt gave you.

You could easily fill a whole dresser with the cool socks available these days. The writer in your life is sure to like:

• Jane Austen socks
• Banned Book socks
• Shakespeare socks

7. Clever coffee mug

Keep your writer caffeinated and amused with a clever coffee mug.

We especially love this humorous one: “Please do not annoy the writer, she may put you in a book and kill you.”

If you’d like to give your favorite writer a boost of confidence, this one may do the trick: “I write. What’s your superpower?”

Finally, for the writer who is serious about getting down to business on Monday mornings, we recommend this “Write epic shit” mug.

8. Noise-canceling headphones

Shhhhh! Writer at work! While some writers prefer the energetic buzz of a coffee shop while they write, many writers crave peace and quiet.

Noise-canceling headphones can give the writer in your life the silence (and productivity) they need to put pen to paper. Bose has a number of options that range in price. 

9. Literary jewelry

Know a stylish writer? Here are a few pieces they could add to any outfit:

• A necklace with a Jane Austen quote
• A bracelet that says “She is too fond of books and it has turned her brain.”
• Oscar Wilde cuff links

Whether your writer loves Austen, Shakespeare or Poe, the JezebelCharms Etsy shop is filled with literary-inspired jewelry and accessories.

10. Online course for writing well

If your favorite writer is always looking to improve their craft, gift them a course or ebook they can absorb on their own schedule.

A few we recommend:

• Grammar Lion’s Grammar Refresher Course, from Ellen Feld
• Our ebook 71 Ways to Earn as a Freelance Writer offers tons of ideas for earning money from your craft

We’ve rounded up our favorite online courses for writers here.

11. Novel Teas

Is your writer a tea-lover?

Novel Teas could be the perfect present, one they can enjoy while working on their novel or freelance project.

Each bag comes with 25 individually wrapped tea bags containing English breakfast tea and a quote about books from a variety of authors.

12. Literary perfumes

Inspire your writer with the scent of the masters who have gone before. Immortal Perfumes’ Dead Writers Perfume uses scents like black tea, clove and tobacco to evoke memories of first editions in old libraries.

One fun example is Pemberly: A Jane Austen Inspired Perfume. It features hyacinth, honeysuckle and peony — all flowers found in the garden of Chatsworth House, the estate believed to have inspired Austen’s Pemberly.

13. Literary tattoos (temporary)

If you want to give your writer something that lasts a little longer than a spritz of perfume — but not so long that it becomes a permanent life decision — shop from Litographs’ Literary Tattoo Collection.

These temporary tattoos include famous literary quotes such as Jane Eyre’s “I would always rather be happy than dignified” and William Shakespeare’s “This above all; to thine own self be true.”

14. T-shirt that features your (entire) favorite book

From a distance, designs on Litographs t-shirts represent a theme, character or setting from popular classics such as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Great Gatsby and Little Women. But if you look closely, you’ll see the designs on each Litograph product are created from teeny tiny words — every word in the novel the design represents, in fact. Each T-shirt contains roughly 40,000 words! 

15. Desk lamp that doubles as an organizer

The Write Life contributor Nicole Dieker called the Useful Tablet Organizer Desk Lamp “the best thing I bought for my office this year.”

It’s a low-cost, colorful lamp that includes outlets (two-prong and USB) so you can charge two devices simultaneously. It also has cubbyholes to store headphones, paperclips or anything else you want to keep organized.

16. Literary action figures

These action figures are a good reminder that writers are superheros, too.

Your writer could use these to add some personality to their home office or stage an elaborate battle when they should be revising.

Accoutrements has a line offering Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe.

17. “Writer” Bookends

What writer doesn’t love books?

Here’s a fun way to display them with “writer” bookends available on Etsy:

18. Card catalog notecard set

Give your writer a better way to keep plot lines and story ideas organized with this card catalog notecard set.

It’s way cooler than Post-It notes and packs a nice dose of nostalgia.

19. Writing-themed cookbooks

A good book can suck you into its world, inspiring you to see, hear, feel and taste the things it describes.

Help your writer enjoy the “taste” bit with cookbooks inspired by literary classics. Options range from the A Feast of Ice & Fire (Game of Thrones) to Dinner with Mr. Darcy (Pride & Prejudice) to The Little House Cookbook (Little House on the Prairie).

20. Kindle Unlimited subscription

With Kindle Unlimited, your favorite reader can access over a million books, plus thousands of audiobooks, for a flat monthly fee.

If your writer already has a Kindle, this could be a good option!

21. Comfy pajamas

Every writer has days where showering and changing into “real” clothes takes a backseat to getting that draft finished. (For some of us, that’s most days.)

Why not give them a set of comfy pajamas that explains why they’re greeting the UPS driver disheveled at 3 in the afternoon? CafePress has lots of fun options.

22. Personalized embosser

Create custom stationery, give your party invitations an official flourish or ensure those who borrow your books remember to give them back.

A customized embosser allows you to stamp a raised seal with your name, address and more.

23. Edgar Allen Poe air freshener

Freshen up your car with some “Poe-pourri.” This Edgar Allen Poe air freshener is perfect for a self-proclaimed literary nerd.

Plus, according to reviews, it smells pretty good.

24. After-work glassware

Write drunk, edit sober? Er…something like that.

This literary-themed shot glass set features the likes of Dorothy Parker, Oscar Wilde, and more.

25. A Starbucks or Amazon gift card 

When you want to support a writer but you’re not sure what to get them, a gift card is a safe bet.

If you don’t know which books your writer has read already, give yourself a break — and make your writer happy at the same time — by giving them a gift-wrapped Amazon Gift Card. This one even says, “Happy reading” so they’ll know it’s for books.

You also can’t go wrong with credit to their favorite locally-owned cafe or a nationally-available shop like Starbucks.

26. Writer’s clock

Give your writer the gift of soft nudges and a bit of direction with this humorous writer’s clock where each hour is labeled with a task. 

Now when your writer aimlessly stares at the clock, they’ll be reminded to either “review” or “edit” something, or know it’s time to “drink heavily” and “cry.”

27. The Writer’s Toolbox 

Writers everywhere are familiar with the frustrations of writer’s block — that’s what makes this gift a perfect choice. 

Help the writer in your life cure theirs with this toolbox designed specifically to nourish creativity. It includes 60 exercises, as well as games, prompts and more that are sure to get stories across the finish line. 

The Writer Emergency Pack is another great gift for writers struggling with writer’s block.

28. A subscription to try different literary journals

Journal of the Month sends different print literary journals to subscribers on a regular basis. It’s an ideal gift for new writers eager to learn about the small magazine scene, emerging writers seeking a home for their writing, or experienced writers in need of fresh inspiration.

The price varies depending on how frequently your writer receives journals, and if they already subscribe to some, you can opt out of those.

29. A poster for keeping track of books they’ve read

Perfect for the voracious reader, the 100 Books Scratch-Off Poster lets your writer track progress as they read a variety of books ranging from classics to contemporary hits.

This is a fun challenge, a cool piece of art to hang in at home, and a #humblebrag, all in one.

30. Editing software

Give your writer a leg up and super clean copy with a grammar checker like Grammarly, ProWritingAid or AutoCrit.

They’ll keep your writer from making embarrassing grammar mistakes before submitting to magazines or literary agents, at a fraction of the price of a real-person editor. 

31. Writing-themed coasters

We love coasters as gifts because they’re both creative and practical.

Add some sparkle to your writer’s desk or living room, while giving them a place to put their coffee or tea mug (or tumbler of whiskey) with any of these cool coaster sets:

• • Typewriter coaster set
  • Jane Austen books coaster set
  • Library card coaster set
  • Pun book coaster set

32. Office supply storage

Help them keep their pens, Post-Its, and other supplies in order with a fun storage solution like this library book desk organizer or this Hemingway typewriter pencil cup.

33. A love book

If you love a writer, tell them how much you care in a language that will make them fall head over heels: a personalized Love Book. You can customize everything from the cover to the number of pages and choose from a wide selection of illustrations and text to make a book that’s unique to your love story.

The Write Life contributor Kelly Gurnett got one of these as a gift from her husband for their anniversary, and she wrote, “It was the best gift I think he’s ever given me.” Talk about a personal touch!

34. “Being a writer is easy” mug

Writing can be tough, stressful work. Make your writer laugh a little with this “Being a Writer Is Easy” mug.

35. Book cover postcards

Sometimes you’ve gotta judge a book by its cover. Postcards from Penguin: One Hundred Book Covers in One Box pays tribute to the iconic Penguin paperback book covers and packs 100 of them into one (easy-to-wrap) box.

This gift also pays tribute to your recipient. Hopefully, they’ll be inspired to write 100 notes to loved ones or 100 very, very short stories.

36. Bananagrams

Writers tend to be word nerds who enjoy word games. But Scrabble feels…boring. So how about Bananagrams?

Bananagrams is an anagram game similar to Scrabble, but requires no pens, notepads or playing board. This makes it extremely easy to transport and play on-the-go.

Players race against each other to build a crossword grid off each others’ words. Perfect for a writer who loves a little competition!

37. Reading is Sexy swag

For a great stocking stuffer that will make your writer smile, grab a Reading is Sexy bottle opener, mug, bumper sticker or button.

38. Literary poster

Pop Chart is known for their beautifully designed infographic posters, and their literary themed posters are just the gift for a writer with blank wall space to fill.

Check out The Cocktail Chart of Film and Literature Poster, which is available as a framed or unframed print. The company describes it as a “catalog of 49 drinks culled from great works of film and literature, depicting everything from Philip Marlowe’s Gin Gimlet to Fredo Corleone’s Banana Daiquiri.”

We also love Women of Letters: A Literary Fiction Scratch-Off Chart, which showcases the work of more than 50 female fiction writers.

39. Things that smell like books

Any true book lover savors all aspects of the reading experience — the feel of a page between their fingers, watching as a cover slowly becomes dog-eared, and, of course, the smell of books.

(If you don’t know what books smell like, then you’ve been found out, because you are clearly not a book lover.)

Give your beloved book nerd the smell of their favorite thing. If they love reading by candlelight, try these Library Set candles with scents like “antique books” and “ancient scrolls.” If they enjoy a little cologne now and then, consider The Library of Fragrance’s Paperback cologne, which the company describes as “sweet and just a touch musty, a lot like Pym’s world come to think of it.”

40. Book-lover pillow

“Just one more chapter…”

Does your word nerd say this all the time? Especially when they should be sleeping?

Then this book pillow is the perfect way to get comfy in bed.

41. High-tech pen

Why use a regular pen when you can have a cool techy one?

This LED pen is ideal for late-night writing in the dark, like when you wake up at 3 a.m. with a great idea. Or invest in this Livescribe Smartpen, which saves notes and audio recordings directly to your computer.

42. A bathtub book caddy

Help your favorite writer relax at the end of a long day with a hot, luxurious bubble bath, some candles and a favorite read, thanks to this bathtub book caddy.

It’s even got a spot to hold a glass of wine!

43. Bookish jewelry

Let your writer keep their favorite book close to the heart (or wrist or ears) with these pieces of literary jewelry made from real pages of popular novels like Treasure Island, Pride & Prejudice and Moby Dick.

44. Literary wine

If you’ve got a wine-drinker on your hands, they’ll get a kick out of these Writer’s Block wines. You can choose from Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and more.

45. Cocktails with a literary twist

Looking for the perfect drink pairing for your writer to take to book club or enjoy during quiet evening hours curled up with the classics? They’ll love Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails With a Literary Twist.

This fun mixology book contains 65 literary-inspired drink recipes like The Pitcher of Dorian Grey Goose and Vermouth the Bell Tolls.

It’s also full of clever illustrations and commentary, bar snack recipes and drinking game ideas.

46. Funny tote bag

Is your writer a grammar geek?

Try this tote bag from CafePress that says, “I’m silently correcting your grammar.”

47. Write like a motherf%#$*er mug

Inspired by a Dear Sugar column written by Cheryl Strayed to a young, aspiring writer, The Rumpus Mug is an anthem for all writers, no matter what their specialty, genre or level of experience.

It’s a good reminder to go along with your morning coffee.

48. Scrabble magnets

Here’s an oldie but goodie: Scrabble magnetic refrigerator tiles. We like the vintage wood look, too.

If that special writer in your life is a huge Scrabble fan, you might also throw in the Scrabble tile mug or Scrabble board dish towel.

49. Out of print t-shirt, sweatshirt or tote bag

Some writer nerd clothing can be downright — well, nerdy. Out of Print tees, hoodies and totes, which feature the covers of iconic and often (you guessed it) out of print books, buck the norm and are actually fashionable.

Plus these gifts do good; for every item they sell, Out of Print donates a book to Books for Africa to help a community that doesn’t have easy access to books.

50. Literary insults chart

We love Uncommon Goods’ description of this product: “Relish the caustic creativity of this collection of zingers from great authors.”

The Literary Insults Chart includes some splashes of color, so it makes great wall art… and shows off your writer’s personality, too.

We updated the post so it’s more useful for our readers. Nicole Dieker, Kelly Gurnett, Jessica Lawlor, Meryl Williams and Betsy Mikel contributed to this article.

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The post 50 Gifts for Writers That Are Way Better Than a Boring Old Notebook appeared first on The Write Life.