Books
11 Unique Graduation Gifts Perfect To Give The Aspiring Writer
If you are graduating, congratulations! If you are not graduating, prepare to spend the week being annoyed at your Facebook/Instagram/Twitter feed, although this is likely not a new feeling for you. And if you do know someone who is graduating, good luck finding her a creative graduation gift. FYI, straight-up cash always works, but it is lacking in the charm department.
It can be especially tricky to find gifts for aspiring writers that go beyond the usual blank journal, because, let’s be real, your writer probably has around 500 of them and uses nary a one. So what do you get the writer who has everything, except, perhaps, gainful employment? These 11 cute 'n’ quirky ('n’ reasonably priced) gifts are sure to please the graduating writer in your life.
'Voice to Voice: Girls Write Now 2015 Anthology'
The awesome non-profit organization Girls Write Now, which pairs promising but underserved young women with writing mentors to help them find their voices, will be releasing Voice to Voice: Girls Write Now 2015 Anthology at the GWN Awards Gala in NYC on May 19. This anthology showcases the best work from the org’s mentor/mentee pairs, and it’s sure to motivate your graduating writer to find her own voice.
Grammatically Correct Decor
Help your grad spruce up her new minuscule apartment with an ode to the world’s most underrated punctuation mark.
Semicolon Art Print, $18, Etsy
Coffee Pour Over
Know what writers love even more than actually everything? No, it’s not a burst of well-timed Proustian enlightenment. It’s coffee.
'The Artist's Way' by Julia Cameron
This classic self-help guide/treatise on living creatively may be a little hippy-dippy for the cynical writer in your life — but once you get past her New Age-y jargon, Cameron provides some really helpful tips, especially on how to overcome writer’s block.
Moleskine Evernote
If your graduating writer is keen on entering the 21st century but still does not want to be (seen) without a classic Moleskine notebook, the Evernote smart notebook is the perfect gift for her. It works just like an analog notebook (i.e. write inside of it), but it links up to the Evernote app: take a picture of the pages with the accompanying camera, and all that work becomes digitized.
'Several Short Sentences About Writing' by Verlyn Klinkenborg
“You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal.” James Baldwin said this, but Verlyn Klinkenborg’s invaluable little book will teach you how to put that idea into practice.
Literary Tote Bag
Canvas totes are gifts from the book-loving gods — and nothing is not made better by Edgar Allan Poe’s lopsided little face.
Subscription Service Boxes
Chances are, your graduating writer will be spending a lot of time holed up at home, possibly neither eating solid food nor bathing in any form. Help her out a little with subscription boxes like NatureBox or Birchbox, which deliver healthy snacks or makeup/skincare goods right to her door.
Image: Beck Gusler/Flickr
Writer's Block Aids
Writer’s block is the pits. Help your writer out of that dark hole by gifting her with these cheeky “inspiration dice,” which will randomly roll her to fresh new storylines.
'Still Writing' by Dani Shapiro
Being a writer is a pretty lonely existence, and young writers are bound to feel a little aimless. Your graduating writer will take comfort in Dani Shapiro’s manifesto/memoir/advice book, Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life , in which the writer guides us through her creative process and offers wisdom on how to navigate your own.
